Grox Wars: A New Beginning
by MagmaGroudon
Summary: A girl is abducted by mysterious aliens from an alternate universe, only to begin the adventure through space that she had always dreamed of. This is based on my Grox Wars RP series, which can be found on the Sporum.
1. Chapter 1

The night had arrived as the Sun disappeared behind the towering mountains in the distance. The bright, luminous moon could now be seen rising into the dark, clear sky, and the many twinkling stars were now becoming visible.

A tall, slender girl, who appeared to be a teenager, was hiking down a thin, dirt trail in the middle of a forest. As she walked, she could hear the few leaves that were scattered on the ground crunching beneath her boots. Her raven-colored hair blew to the side as small gusts of cold wind passed by, all while the moonlight seemed to reveal her slightly tan Caucasian skin. Her bright, sapphire eyes searched the area in front of her, seeing only the silhouettes of the many trees in the darkness. She wore a light, blue shirt, covered by a thin, gray coat, a pair of faded blue jean pants, and black sneakers that were slightly scratched from walking through certain areas of the forest. She was also carrying a somewhat large, black backpack on her back, although it wasn't heavy enough to slow her down any.

She was now approaching a large, ominous clearing in the forest. Once she walked into this area, she looked up at the dark, clear sky. She smiled slightly at the beautiful sight, seeing the moon and the many stars lighting the night. She soon focused back on the earth once more, looking down towards the horizon. She walked over to a somewhat large, gray boulder, sitting down upon it after a few seconds. It was cold to the touch, which almost made her want to stand back up again. She then gazed back up at the sky, smiling once more.

"I wish there was a way for me to just leave this place and travel among the stars." she said to herself, staring into the darkness of the sky. "It would be much better than staying here on Earth… No one here needs me to stay here anyway…"

She continued staring at the blackened sky for a few more minutes. She soon sighed and leaped off the boulder, walking forward slightly after landing on the ground. Since she was still completely focused on the sky, she had no clue that a large log was right in front of her, and she was walking directly towards it. In seconds, she tripped over the log and roughly fell down on the other side. This is when she also realized that there was a small pond on the other side of the log as well…

She growled and stood up, dripping wet from the murky pond water. Only her backpack managed to stay partially dry. She walked away from the pond and leaped over the large log, shivering as the cold gusts of air blew around her.

"Maybe I should just go home… It's not like I'm going to find a better place to stay…"

Just as she began to walk back towards home, she quickly began to look around. She was now completely confused as to how she was going to get back.

"Great… Now I'm lost!" she said, sitting down on the log behind her. She was nearly freezing cold now, unable to handle the harsh temperatures in the environment any longer.

"I need to make a fire soon… Otherwise I am going to freeze to death out here…" She then stood up once more, beginning to walk back to the forest in search of twigs and sticks to build a fire.

Just as she was about to enter the forest, she heard a loud humming noise approaching in the distance. She knew it was probably just a large jet plane. However, she wanted to check it out anyway. She soon walked back over into the clearing, looking up at the sky in the direction she heard the noise. She nearly fainted at the sight of what she saw coming out of the darkness. What she was now looking at was a large, sleek, gray-colored starship hovering a distance away from her in the clearing. She knew this couldn't be driven by any humans here on Earth, finally realizing what had to be in there: aliens.

"HOLY CRAP!" she exclaimed, staring at the alien starship in front of her. She watched the ship as it began to land on the earth below it.

Her first instinct was to run away since she had no clue as to why the aliens were here. However, she also had a strong wanting to walk towards it.

As she took her first steps towards the ship, she trembled. Not just because she was still damp from falling in the pond, but because she was slightly frightened from the presence of the ship. Once she finally reached the front of the ship, she instantly froze.

"Whoa…" she thought, staring in amazement. Seconds later, the ship's entrance began to open. She instantly focused on the entrance and started slowly backing away, frightened once more.

Once the entrance was completely open, she soon saw six of the aliens who were inside. The aliens were completely armored, so it was impossible to tell exactly what they really looked like. However, what she was able to really notice was their glowing red eyes. It almost made them appear demonic, which only managed to frighten her more.

As she was slowly walking backwards, she didn't realize that a large log was directly behind her. Once she took a few more steps back, she tripped over the log, causing her to fall down backwards.

She quickly stood up, only to see that the aliens were now creeping towards her. She instantly began to run away back towards the forest in order to avoid getting captured. Her heart was pounding rapidly as she ran, worried of what the aliens would do if they captured her. She took a quick look behind her, seeing that the creatures were now pursuing after her.

As she was running, she was far too afraid to pay attention to where she was going. In only seconds, she tripped directly over a rock. She yelled out in pain and roughly collapsed on the ground below her. She heard the aliens stop running and beginning to surround her, listening to their metallic claws crunch through the leaves lying beside her. She quickly looked up at the six, threatening aliens, watching them as they surrounded her like a pack of wolves. She noticed that they weren't completely armored, seeing two, pointy ears extending outwards on the sides of their heads. Their mouths were visible as well, and at the moment they were exposing their sharp, canine-like teeth as they growled at her. These aliens also seemed to be about a foot taller than she was.

Without warning, two of the aliens jumped forward and grabbed her arms, forcing her to stand back up. Their sharp claws began to graze her delicate skin as they grabbed her, causing her to wince in pain. She instantly began struggling in attempt to free herself from the two aliens, however, they were far too powerful for her to escape. She continued struggling wildly as the aliens began walking back to the ship, fearing what they were going to do to her. As she struggled, she managed to catch a glimpse of one alien, who was not holding onto her, forming something in one of his hands with a dark, metallic-looking matter that seemed to appear and extend off of his arm. She wasn't able to see what it was, only focusing on attempting to free herself from the alien's grips. This is when she noticed that the two aliens restraining her stopped walking for some reason, which began to slightly confuse her.

Seconds later, she heard a loud blasting noise from some type of laser weapon, quickly feeling a sharp pain piercing through her back. She knew that she had been shot, but she wondered why she wasn't dead. Instead, she began to feel increasingly tired, slowly drifting into unconsciousness...


	2. Chapter 2

Everything was a blur around her as she was beginning to regain consciousness. She could hear the faint hums of various mechanisms in the background as she sluggishly awakened, which was becoming clearer to her every second. She also felt a warm heat in the air that made her slightly uncomfortable.

She began to slowly sit up, sliding her hands across a glossy metallic surface as she did so. As she looked around, she realized that she had been lying on the floor inside a large room that was dimly lit by an ominous, orange illumination. She first looked near the central part of the room, noticing a large operating table with metallic restraints attached to it near each corner, as well as a few smaller tables that held various sharp cutting devices and other types of eccentric, high-tech items, like quantities of metal, circuit boards, and wiring. As she gazed over at the wall behind the tables, she noticed larger, more threatening cutting tools, like different types of saws and blades.

"This isn't good at all…" she whispered to herself. She reached towards her back as if she was about to get something from her backpack, but instead it wasn't there any longer. She sighed and placed her hand back where it was before, now struggling to focus off her surroundings. This caused her to notice a weak, unpleasant smell in the air around her, which made her assume that her clothes had absorbed some of the smell from the pond water that she fell in earlier. She gently leaned against the metallic wall that was behind her, attempting to forget about the situation that she was now in. However, as she did so, she noticed an unusual, sleeping alien in the corner of her eye, which was curled up on the floor close beside her.

Once she turned her head to look at it, she first looked at the type of protective clothing it was wearing. The alien was protected with a lightweight, reddish-purple armor, which had a golden, cross-shaped symbol on the chest piece. It also appeared to be wearing a short sleeve, black-colored shirt under the armor (since the chest armor didn't cover his stomach) and a pair of black pants as well.

She assumed that the alien was a young, adult male, who she strangely thought to have slightly handsome features, even though he was a different species than her. The alien himself was covered in short, red-orange fur, except for an area around his mouth, inside his two, long, pointed ears that extended outwards on the sides of his head, and the tips of his three-fingers and the palms of his hands, as well as the soles of his feet and the tips of his two toes. Instead those areas were covered in a light, smooth, cream-colored skin. On both his arms and legs were four, dark-red stripes each, the highest stripes being the ones directly below his elbows and knees. He also had a dark, auburn mane, which covered the top of his head and seemed to end halfway down the back of his neck. Furthermore, she noticed that his nose appeared to be two skinny slits a few inches above his mouth.

Since she was curious about where she was now, she knew that she probably should wake the alien up and ask him where they were. Part of her told her that it was a bad idea, but her curiosity led her back to waking up the alien. She stretched her hand towards the alien and began pushing his shoulder slightly, hesitating somewhat before she did so. In only seconds, she heard a soft, dog-like growling noise come from the alien's mouth. She swiftly moved her hand away from him since she knew that he didn't seem to like what she did.

She watched as the alien moved somewhat, slowly opening his emerald-colored eyes and turning his gaze to her. He gave her a confused look, which wasn't exactly what she was expecting him to do. Now is when she decided to speak.

"Um… Sorry to bother you, but where are we?" she asked. She waited for a response from the alien, but instead he only continued to look at her awkwardly. She sighed deeply after not getting a response. "…Why are you looking at me like that? Can you even speak English?"

After a few more seconds of silence, the alien finally began to speak. "…You are a human…" he said with a soothing, Arabic accent, slowly sitting up as he spoke. "…I thought they were all extinct…"

"…Why would we be extinct?" she asked with a puzzled expression. "Humans have been on Earth for years, and I definitely know they were still there before I was abducted."

"…I guess you are from another universe then." he sighed. "The humans here were killed off years ago here… But I guess my real concern now should be the fact that your captors can travel through the multiverse now…"

"…Anyway, where are we?" she asked after pausing for a few seconds, attempting to change the subject. "And also, if these aliens captured me then why am I not restrained? I'm glad that I'm not, but it seems kinda strange."

"First of all, you are in the main laboratory of one of the most dangerous factions in the galaxy." The alien replied. "Second, it may not seem like it, but we are in a prisoner cell." The alien stood up after saying this, reaching his hand out in front of him as if he was about to touch something. Once his hand reached a certain point in the air, it pressed against what seemed to be an invisible wall of energy. However, it wasn't invisible anymore, slowly glowing bright-red seconds after he touched it. Once he removed his hand from the wall, the red color gradually faded away. He then sat back down beside her once more.

"Well that explains it…" she sighed. "So who are the aliens who captured us? By looking at the rest of the lab I can obviously tell that they aren't friendly… What exactly do they do here?"

"…You really don't want to know. You will probably find out very soon, and I'd rather not explain any of it."

Silence filled the room for a few seconds, except for the sounds of the various machines in the background. Eventually, she decided to break the silence.

"…So what's your name?" she aimlessly asked, not knowing what else to say. "Also, what are you? My name is Rachel by the way."

"I am General Leon of the Central Grox Empire." the alien replied, managing to smile slightly as he said this.

"So you're called a Grox?" Rachel asked, smiling as well. "You look more like a cat-person to me."

"…Hey, that's actually VERY insulting. I may look like a feline, but Grox are canines."

"Well it was just a guess..." she chuckled. "Anyway, you said you're a General, right? What military group do you work for?"

"I work for the Galactic Alliance. It's a faction led by Emperor Zadok of the Central Grox Empire and three other Grox Emperors. Our purpose is to bring order and peace to the galaxy, and to prevent galactic and intergalactic threats from taking over. We are also attempting to unite the Empires of this galaxy as well, or at least the nine Grox empires."

"Why are there nine different empires? Wouldn't it be easier to just have one?"

"Well, there was only one to begin with, but the Emperor was corrupt. Eventually eight other political leaders separated from the original Empire and formed their own. Luckily the Emperor was later killed and Emperor Zadok took his place. However, even though one of the corrupt Emperors is dead, there are still three others who oppose us."

"…Wait, if you said that there are nine empires, then what about the other two? You only mentioned three allies and three enemies."

"One of them we aren't sure whose side he's on. The other one was murdered by one of the enemy Emperors."

"…Oh. Well anyway, shouldn't we be trying to get out of here? I don't even want to know what those aliens plan on doing to us both…"

"…This is actually my second time getting captured. There is a way to escape, but we can't attempt to right now. It's impossible to get out of this cell so we have to wait for the assimilator to let us out…"

"…Assimilator? What is that?"

"I really don't want to explain… But soon you will find out… Anyway, when he lets us out you need to be ready to run. Do NOT let him restrain you or he can easily make you his next victim. If he does manage to get you then I will try to save you. Now, it might be a while before he lets us out depending on how many more prisoners are in the other cells, and depending on who he wants to assimilate first… He should be here any second now, so get ready…"

The two were silent after this was said, seemingly unable to think of anything else to talk about. Rachel's heart was racing now, knowing that any second the assimilator could appear. She turned her head away from Leon and began to stare at the floor as she waited for the worst to happen. She closed her eyes and sighed deeply in attempt to focus off the situation. Seconds later, she felt a smooth, warm hand gently grasp her own, knowing that it was Leon. She opened her eyes and gazed back at him.

"Don't worry, Rachel." Leon said, smiling slightly as he spoke in a soft, calming tone. "I will make sure that you escape unharmed."

"…Why do you all of a sudden want to help me? I mean, you don't even know me…"

"I don't need a reason to help someone. But if you really want a reason, then it would have to be that I don't want you to be assimilated. It is said to be like torture… And that is something that no one should have to experience…"

After he finished speaking, a strange, metallic clanking noise and the sound of moving cybernetic parts interrupted the silence. It sounded as if someone was now slowly walking into the laboratory. Both Rachel and Leon quickly looked forward, knowing that the assimilator was now approaching. Rachel quickly tensed her grip around Leon's hand as she could feel herself beginning to tremble, watching in fear as she waited for the alien to become visible…


	3. Chapter 3

_Warning: Violence_

* * *

><p>A few more seconds after hearing the eerie, mechanical sounds of the approaching assimilator, he was now becoming visible to Rachel and Leon. What they saw was a tall, lean, Grox-like figure, almost covered completely in sleek, metallic armor and cybernetics. He looked much like one of the mysterious aliens who abducted Rachel, although there were still some slight differences. Since his armor didn't completely cover him, his boney, pale face was exposed, as well as his slender neck. Both of his eyes were noticeably cybernetic. The iris of his eyes glowed bright red, while the parts that would normally be white was a bright, glowing gold instead. She also noticed that unlike what she believed a normal Grox looked like, he had five, clawed fingers and four, clawed toes that reminded her of a velociraptor.<p>

Rachel froze in fear once she saw the deathly assimilator slowly walking through the laboratory. She could feel her heart pounding inside her, terrified once she realized that he was walking towards the prisoner cells. His glowing, bionic eyes glared downwards directly at Rachel as he stopped in front of the cell. He soon shifted his gaze towards Leon, grinning once he saw him.

"General Leon, you have been captured again, I see." the assimilator said with the same Arabic accent that Leon had, except his voice sounded raspy and electronic. "Don't you realize that you can't escape from us?"

"Trust me, I will always find a way to escape." Leon growled. "You will never assimilate me, Mutare."

Mutare simply laughed softly in response, soon gazing back at Rachel. "And I see that you have a friend with you. Too bad she will be assimilated as well. I don't believe I have ever assimilated a human before, so don't expect her to survive."

Rachel began to tremble in fear, soon struggling to speak. "…Hey I don't think you shou-"

"Stay away from her!" Leon swiftly interrupted, standing up to defend Rachel. "She doesn't even know what you plan on doing to her! She's not from this universe!"

"Do you really believe I care?" Mutare smirked, looking back at Leon. "But now that you say that she doesn't know about my assimilation methods, I think I'll just use you as an example…"

Rachel quickly moved back once she noticed Mutare pressing a button on the wall nearby, believing that he had deactivated the invisible wall of energy. This is when Leon quickly bolted out of the cell. The assimilator snarled in rage and looked in the direction that he ran, soon stalking after him. Rachel swiftly ran out of the cell and looked over to where she saw Leon run, only to see him nearly cornered on the other side of the laboratory. She then noticed him staring at her with a seemingly worried expression.

"Rachel! Get out of here!" he shouted. "There is a button on the wall by the exit! It will open the door!"

"I'm not leaving without you!" she retorted. She quickly began to look around the room in attempt to find something to fight with, which wasn't very difficult since there were many devices that could be used as weapons in there. Right when she turned her back to the two Grox and ran over to one of the walls to get a blade, she heard a shrill yelp from behind her, sounding like a dog in pain. She quickly turned around, only to see Mutare swiftly dragging Leon towards the operating table. His sharp, metallic claws were piercing through the upper part of Leon's arms, drawing out a bright, crimson-colored blood. Rachel quickly gripped the handle of one of the blades as Leon was forced on the operating table. She watched in fear as his arms and legs were locked in the metal restraints.

"Now, you will finally get what you deserve, General." Mutare grinned, beginning to laugh maniacally. "I will make sure you feel every bit of pain!"

Just as Mutare began reaching for one of the sharp, metallic cutting devices, Rachel swiftly dashed towards him and sliced his head with the blade. The blade ricocheted off the assimilator's helmet, not even managing to cause a scratch. He instantly turned towards Rachel, growling in resentment. Rachel nervously tightened her grip around the blade in preparation to strike again. She could feel herself beginning to tremble once more, seeing the blade shaking in her hand.

"Rachel what are you doing?" Leon shouted, looking at Rachel.

"…Saving your life!" she nervously replied, continuing to glare at Mutare. She positioned the blade in front of her body, making sure it was between her and the assimilator.

"It's impossible for someone like you to kill him! His armor is too powerful and he has nanites that allow him to regenerate any damage done to him! Just leave without me and find a way out of here!"

Rachel continued focusing on Mutare, her blade shaking even more now. She watched the assimilator as his angered expression soon turned into a devious grin.

"There is no escaping, Rachel..." he said in a calm, yet disturbing tone. "Even if you left without him you would never get past our soldiers. And even if you did manage to do that, I definitely know that you don't know how to pilot a starship. That's the only way off this space station. You will have absolutely nowhere to go. Eventually you will just be brought back to me, and you will be assimilated. There is no point for you to run away, so you might as well just surrender now, or die attempting to fight me. Your choice."

Rachel remained frozen in front of Mutare, now trying to keep her grip on the blade's handle. She had been sweating from the high temperature inside the laboratory and from anxiety, which was starting to begin making the handle slide out of her hand.

When she tightened her grip once more, one of her fingers managed to slip over a button on the handle. She subconsciously pressed down on it, not caring about what it would possibly be able to do. Instantly after she did this, powerful charges of electricity could be both seen and heard by both her and Mutare. She quickly looked at the blade, then back at the assimilator.

Mutare's expression changed once more, seeming to be frightened now. She noticed that his ears were flat against his head, which she thought was an indicator of fear. Rachel managed to smirk slightly after seeing his reaction, raising the charged blade up a bit more as she began to slowly saunter towards him.

"You're afraid of this, aren't you?" she said in a devious tone. "You don't like electricity? That can only mean that it can cause harm to you. Now, release Leon and allow us to leave, or be electrocuted to death. Your choice."

Mutare began slowly backing away from her, his eyes completely focused on the blade. He remained completely silent as Rachel continued moving towards him.

"I guess you choose the last one then…" she said, beginning to glare at him. Without warning, she quickly positioned the blade to the side, charged forward at him, and struck his side with the blade. She heard him yelp loudly in pain as the electricity coursed through his body. The pain seemed to be so intense that it actually managed to cause him to collapse. Rachel continued striking random parts of his body, attempting to ignore his almost-deafening screams of agony. After a few more blows to his head, he eventually stopped moving, and his yelps were silenced.

Assuming Mutare was finally dead, Rachel deactivated the electricity from the blade and tossed it to the side, still looking down at him. A few seconds later, she walked over to the operating table and unlocked the metallic restraints from around Leon's arms and legs. He quickly leaped off the table and dashed towards the door.

"We need to leave NOW! Mutare is only unconscious and is slowly regenerating the damage that the electricity caused to his circuits!" Leon speedily said as he approached the exit. He quickly pressed a nearby button on the wall, causing the large, metallic door to quickly slide open. "Rachel! Bring that blade with you! We will need it to fight off any soldiers that we might come across!"

Rachel quickly ran over to the blade and picked it back up, tightening her grip around it and pressing the button on the handle to reactivate the electrical charge. She sprinted out of the room after seeing Leon do the same, running alongside him down the dimly-lit hallways.

"Where are we going?" she asked as they ran, curious to know how they were going to leave the space station.

"We're going to the hanger. We need a ship that will get us out of here, and that's the place to find one."

As they ran, Rachel began skimming her gaze around her, noticing various security cameras imbedded in the walls, which actually seemed to be staring at them when they passed by.

"Uh… I think we're being watched…" she said, focusing on running once more. "There are a lot of cameras along the walls…"

"They're motion-detecting security cameras. But don't worry, the security here is very poor. We should be able to get out of here easily even if we are stopped by a few soldiers. With that blade you have it should knock them unconscious with one blow. The one that we have to look out for is their leader. As far as I know, he is nearly impossible to defeat…"

After a few more minutes of running through the empty corridors, Rachel stopped beside Leon once she noticed him halting beside a large, metallic door. He pressed a button on the wall, running inside after it had opened. Rachel followed him into the room, looking around as she did so. The room was huge compared to any area she had been in. Various starships were placed inside this room, many reminding her of the first ship she saw before she was abducted. Once she refocused back on Leon, she noticed that he had stopped abruptly not long after entering the hanger. Rachel stopped as well, wondering what was going on.

"Why did we st-" Rachel was immediately interrupted after seeing and hearing bright-red laser blasts shooting past them both, sprinting after Leon once she saw him running for cover. They managed to hide behind a large metal crate, protecting them from the blasts.

"What was that?" she asked, her heart pounding from fright.

"That was an OTD…" he speedily replied.

"…Do you really think I'm going to magically know what your abbreviations stand for?"

"It stands for Omega Turret Droid. They are very hard to hit because of their speed, but one hit from your blade and the electric current will stun it."

"So you expect me to run out there and hit it?"

"No, I'm going to expect you to distract it." He then snatched the blade out of Rachel's hand, being careful not to allow the actual blade to touch him.

"What? I can't do that! That's suicide!"

"There is only one of them and your speed should be enough to dodge the blasts. Now hurry before more of them show up!"

Rachel glared at Leon for a few seconds, soon running out in the open in front of the droid. It appeared to be large, and beetle-like, yet still shorter than she was. She also noticed that a turret was attached to each side of the droid. The droid was looking away from her at the moment, which made her think that she had to catch its attention.

"Hey dummy! Look at me!" she shouted at the droid. It quickly turned around to face her and began firing at her shortly afterward. She speedily began running in random directions in attempt to dodge the blasts. Only seconds later, she heard the sound of an electrical shocking noise behind her, and a metallic clanking sound after that. The blasts had also stopped as well. She stopped running and sighed in relief as she saw Leon running past her, knowing that his attack was successful. She now stopped moving, nearly exhausted from a combination of the running she had done and the blazing temperature in all the areas she had been in.

"Rachel! Get to the ship!" she heard Leon shout. She looked over to where she heard him, seeing him waiting beside the entrance of one of the larger starships.

After sighing deeply, she began running as fast as she could to the ship, entering it shortly after Leon did. She followed Leon into the cockpit, watching him as he quickly sat down in the pilot's seat, deactivated the electric blade and tossed it aside, and began pressing buttons on the control panel. Rachel sat down in the seat beside him, relieved that she could finally rest. She wiped the sweat off her face as she got comfortable, breathing deeply as well in order to catch her breath. Her thirst was greater than ever now, but she knew it would probably be a while before she could get something to drink.

After a few more minutes of waiting, Rachel heard the loud roar of the ship's engine as it prepared to take off. She looked out the front window, watching as she noticed the ship moving towards the exit of the space station. She began to feel faint now, knowing it was probably from heat exhaustion. As the ship gradually took off into space, she felt herself slowly slipping into unconsciousness…


	4. Chapter 4

Rachel began to slowly awaken, almost not remembering what had caused her to fall unconscious. She noticed that the air around her was much cooler now, also not feeling as if she was overheating anymore. As she gently moved around a bit, she noticed that the surface she was lying on was soft and cushiony, which seemed to feel at least somewhat comfortable. As she began to sluggishly sit up, she noticed Leon in the corner of her left eye.

"I'm glad to see you're finally awake." he said, smiling as he spoke. "You were unconscious for a while."

She soon noticed him holding out what seemed to be a metallic cup of water to her. She was extremely thirsty at the moment, so she didn't hesitate from taking the glass and gulping down the water, drinking every drop of water that was in the cup. After she finished, she set down the cup and finally spoke.

"So where are we now?" she asked.

"We are still in the starship." he simply replied.

"…Oh." she said after pausing for a few seconds. "Anyway, where are we going now?"

"We will be going to the Galactic Alliance headquarters. I need to get back to work as soon as possible. The Emperor is probably wondering what happened to me…"

"And what will I be doing there? I'm not just going to sit somewhere and do nothing."

"Well, you can probably be enlisted in our military. However, only if you can handle it. If not, I'm sure the Emperor can find something else for you to do."

"I think I can handle it." she replied with a slight grin. "What do I have to do?"

"It takes a lot of training to get you ready for it. Meaning hours of extremely difficult training exercises every single day. You will get used to it after a while. After a few days of training, then you will be sent on missions."

"That does sound difficult… But I think I can handle it. Anyway, how long will it take for us to get to where we're going?"

"We are going to the closest solar system to the Galactic Core. Right now we are getting closer, but it should take at least 10 or 15 more minutes."

"So what are we supposed to do for that long?"

"You could probably tell me more about yourself… I don't believe you have told me anything about yourself yet… How did you even get captured in the first place?"

"Well… To tell you the truth, I was actually running away from home. I thought my life was too boring… So I decided to leave. After I began traveling north through a forest, I eventually reached a clearing. I was about to go back home after I fell down in a small pond since it was freezing outside… But before I was able to leave, that's when I saw the ship. After they landed, six of the aliens captured me and I fell unconscious since I guess one of them shot me."

"…Oh." The room was silent after Leon said this, but after a few more seconds, Rachel spoke again.

"…Could you tell me more about the aliens who captured us? You really didn't say much about them… Who are they anyway?"

"They are called Omegas…They are a faction of corrupted aliens controlled by bio-mechanically and genetically enhanced versions of Grox, known as the Omega Grox." he said only seconds after sighing deeply. "Their purpose is to assimilate all forms of intelligent life in their conquest for universal domination."

"What exactly is assimilation? That's something you also never told me…"

"…The Omega's form of assimilation is far more brutal than any of you humans even thought of." he said, hesitating before he spoke. "…These Grox capture many innocent lifeforms, first restraining victims to an operating table and skinning them alive… Their skin is soon replaced with metal, and many parts of them are replaced with cybernetics. The last stage of assimilation is when the victim's brain is operated on. The assimilator attaches many circuits and wires to their brains and injects them with microscopic robots called nanites. Once this is done, the nanites activate the cybernetics and the victim is forced to believe that it is actually an Omega. Their mind is filled with the beliefs of the Omegas, and whoever were their allies become their enemies. The victim will betray even their closest ally after being assimilated…"

"…Why would anyone even think of doing something like that to innocent creatures? Why don't they just leave everyone alone and let them believe what they want to believe?"

"Because their leader is insane…" he growled, nearly interrupting Rachel.

"…Why is that? In what way is he insane?"

"Their leader, Lord Omega, believes that all lifeforms must be under Omega Grox control in order to bring peace to the galaxy. He wants to remove everyone's free will to control the lives of everyone here…"

"…That's terrible… Why hasn't he been killed yet?"

"Like I mentioned earlier, he is almost impossible to kill. His armor is nearly indestructible and can protect his internal organs from high-powered attacks. The only way to at least slow him down is to use many high-powered attacks repeatedly, which slows down his regeneration process. But before this happens, he usually runs away so that his nanites can completely repair him before he fights again."

"…Well he still needs to be stopped… Can't you get some soldiers to track him down and destroy him?"

"It isn't that simple to do." he said in an annoyed tone. "But trust me, he will eventually be silenced. And even if he was killed, he isn't the only major threat in this galaxy…"

"I had a feeling there would be others…" she sighed. "So, who are they?"

"…The next main threat is known as the Xorg."

"The Xorg? Who are they supposed to be?"

"They are our closest relatives, looking very similar to us, having only a few slight differences in appearance. However, they were forced to take a completely different evolutionary path than us because of a powerful, deadly entity. This caused them to breathe hydrogen gas instead of oxygen, and also increased their aggressiveness. They became self-centered, believing that they were superior over every single lifeform in the universe. Eventually they began attacking many planets, killing lifeforms by 'terraforming' the planets to make it habitable by only Xorg. Right now, they shouldn't be much of a problem since we managed to banish them to the farthest part of one of the arms of the galaxy. But later on, I know they will be deadly. Considering the fact of what they really are…"

"…What are they?" she asked, sounding seemingly interested in hearing a response.

"…The Xorg were turned into demons. That is why they were forced to take the different evolutionary path…"

"…And who exactly turned them into demons…?" she said in a skeptical tone.

"The powerful entity I mentioned is the highest of the Demon Lords. He has many different names, and at least one name should be familiar to you if you are a religious person. To Grox and Xorg alike, he is simply known as 24, the antithesis of all life and morality. He is the one who corrupted all sentient life with many terrible sins."

"That sounds kinda familiar… So demons really do exist?"

"Yes, they do. You may not entirely believe me at first, but eventually you will see at least one for yourself."

"…So if demons are real, does that also mean that gods and angels exist as well?"

"Of course. There is only one creator that we know as 42, along with three powerful Deities known as Steve, Spode, and Zadok."

"Wait… Didn't you mention Zadok earlier? You said he was your Emperor, not a Deity…"

"Yes, I did. But he is also one of the Deities. However, he is also a mortal as well. He has a few of the powers that a Deity should have, but not all of them."

"…Oh." Silence once again filled the room after the talking ended. Soon enough, Leon finally managed to interrupt the quietness.

"…So do you want to go do something?" he randomly asked, managing to smile a bit. "I'm sure you don't want to just lay there for the rest of the trip…"

"That depends on what you plan on doing with me." she giggled.

"Um… It's nothing like what you're probably thinking. I was thinking that we could walk around the ship. There isn't many places to go but at least it's something to do."

"Fine with me." She soon slid out of the bed as she noticed Leon walking away towards the open exit, beginning to follow alongside him as they walked. It wasn't very long before they reached the ship's bridge. As Rachel entered the room, she instantly began to gaze out the ship's front windows. She stepped closer to the window, looking out into space.

"Whoa…" she said to herself in amazement. Besides the numerous bright, burning stars, what caught her attention the most was a luminous, white light that seemed to be bigger than everything else, even though it was a distance away. As she noticed Leon, who was now beside her, she soon spoke.

"…What's that?" she asked, continuing to stare at the bright light.

"If you are talking about the object that appears to be a giant star, that's the Galactic Core." he replied, gazing out the window as well. "...Anyway, I believe we are close to our destination."


	5. Chapter 5

Leon progressed towards the pilot's seat and sat down as Rachel first noticed the starship approaching the planet. She unhurriedly sat down in the co-pilot's seat as she gazed out the front window. To her, the planet looked a lot similar to Earth, just with some dissimilarities dealing with the various continents and landforms covering the surface.

After the ship began breaking through the clouds in the planet's blue-colored atmosphere, she was able to see the planet in greater detail. Twilight filled the star-covered skies, and sleek, dark colored skyscrapers and various other buildings with luminous, sapphire-colored light patterns concealed the surface. As the ship continued on for a few more seconds, she noticed it beginning to approach an enormous citadel that was the same, dark color as the other buildings, also having the similar, sapphire-colored light patterns as well. It was elevated on a large hill, seeming to be on the outskirts of the metropolis. Behind it was vast, emerald-colored grassland, having a small, crystal-clear lake towards the center. A dense, alien rainforest hid the somewhat mountainous terrain that was bordering the grassland.

Once Rachel nearly finished observing the beauty of this planet, she realized that the ship was now beginning to land on a sleek, metal surface near the citadel. A few other ships could be seen nearby as well. She looked over at Leon, watching him as he pressed a few buttons on the control panel which soon deactivated the ship. As he stood up and proceeded towards the exit, Rachel quickly rose up and followed behind him.

As they both exited the ship, Rachel began to gaze at her new surroundings. The fresh, cool air blew her hair to the side as she first stepped on the metallic surface outside the ship. She looked out towards the distance, observing the seemingly endless metropolis and the twilight sky above. She noticed a faint, light-blue gas giant in the sky, as well as two smaller planets that seemed to look like moons that were orbiting the planet. Once she turned back around, she instantly noticed the dark, towering citadel nearby.

"Rachel…" she suddenly heard beside her. She turned her head towards where she heard the familiar voice, only to see Leon standing nearby. "Are you ready to go inside, or are you just going to stay out here for the entire night?" She noticed a slight grin on his face as he said this.

"Sorry, I'm just not use to anything like this." she replied with a smile. "This is my first time being on an alien planet."

Leon chuckled after she spoke, turning around and walking towards the large doors of the citadel. As she followed behind him, she noticed two bulky, canine soldiers armed with high-tech rifles guarding the doors. The soldiers looked much like anthropomorphic timber wolves, except their tails were similar to a lion's. Their armor was much like Leon's, except they wore helmets that had a black-colored visor attached to it, which covered their amber-colored eyes.

Leon approached the metallic doors, pressing a button on the sleek, gray-colored wall. In seconds, the two, towering doors began to slowly slide aside, leaving an opening that lead to the inside of the base.

Once Rachel entered inside behind him, she instantly noticed the cooler temperature in the room. The walls were made of the same sleek, gray metal as all the outside walls were, also having a few of the sapphire light patterns as well. The interior, as well as the exterior, seemed to have a gothic style to it, yet still being very futuristic.

"So where exactly are we going?" Rachel asked, looking at Leon as they began walking down an empty hallway.

"Well right now I'm going to take you to my room." he said, looking over at Rachel in response. "Since it's this late at night I'm not sure you're going to be able to get a room of your own at the moment. Besides, my room is big enough for two people."

"That's good…" she simply replied.

After about ten minutes of walking through the seemingly endless hallways, and after reaching the top floor by going up in an elevator, Rachel followed Leon into a room after he opened the door and entered it himself. The room was very spacious and luxurious, having a large bed towards the back and a door on one side of the room that Rachel guessed led to a bathroom. Closer to the bed on the wall was a clear, glass door, which seemed to lead towards a balcony that overlooked the distant metropolis. After looking around the room for a few more minutes, Rachel soon noticed that Leon was beginning to walk back out.

"Where are you going now?" she asked, turning around to face him.

"I'm just going to be getting your new uniform ready so you can change out of those filthy clothes." he replied.

"Hey, they're only filthy because I fell in a pond before I got here." she said with a giggle. "But I guess it would still be a good thing to change out of them. Plus I want to see what my new uniform will look like. How long will this take anyway?"

"It depends… But I do suggest you take a shower or something while you're waiting. My sense of smell is far more advanced than yours, so your stench has been bothering me for a while."

"Alright alright, I get it…" she said in a somewhat annoyed tone. However, she managed to keep smiling as she said this. "I'll take a shower while you're gone. But mainly because I don't want you to continue insulting my appearance and scent."

Leon simply chuckled as he exited the room, closing the door behind him. Rachel sighed in relief after he left, beginning to turn around and look around the room once again.

"This sure is a big room…" she said to herself. "Leon must be pretty famous or something to have a room this fancy…" After a few more seconds of examining the room, she walked over towards where she believed the bathroom was, entering soon afterward.

About 20 minutes later, Rachel peeked outside the bathroom with a black-colored towel wrapped around her, checking to see if Leon was anywhere nearby. After not seeing any sign of his presence, Rachel's gaze went towards the floor. In front of her was an armored uniform, much like what the soldiers she recently saw wore. Assuming that it was supposed to be hers, she carefully knelt down and picked up the uniform. She soon brought it back inside the bathroom and shut the door behind her in order to put it on.

After she finally finished putting the uniform on, she began looking at her new appearance in the bathroom mirror.

"I'm surprised that Leon managed to find the right size for me." she said quietly with a smile while continuing to examine her uniform. "Anyway, I should probably be looking for him now. He's probably waiting on me."

Rachel soon walked out of the bathroom, scanning her eyes around for Leon. At first glance she seemed to see absolutely no sight of him.

"Leon, are you in here?" she asked loudly.

"I'm in the bed… Trying to sleep…" she heard him reply towards the back of the room. She soon sauntered over towards the bed, noticing that most of him was under the bed sheets. All she could see of him at the moment was one of his pointy ears sticking out and the very top of his head.

"Well it's not like I would have been able to figure that out on my own." she giggled. "Anyway, what am I supposed to do now? I'm not even close to tired since I slept not too long ago…"

"Just go find something else to do…" he lazily replied. "You can wander around the base if you want… Something that includes you leaving me alone so I can sleep…"

"Don't worry… I'm sure I can find something to do around here. But I do have a problem with your suggestion… What if I get lost or something? This place is practically a maze!"

"You can ask a guard to show you a way back… Now please, just go…"

Without saying another word, Rachel simply smiled somewhat and began to exit the room. Once she did, she started to wander aimlessly around the seemingly empty corridors, not knowing of anything else she could do.

"I wonder what I'm supposed to do now…" she said quietly to herself, watching as a few various alien soldiers passed by her. "There doesn't seem like a lot I can do here…" As she continued to walk around, she soon noticed a random piece of paper lying beside one of the walls. Curious as to what was typed on it, Rachel picked it up and began examining it immediately, continuing to walk around afterward. She frowned slightly when she noticed it was typed in an alien language.

"Now how am I supposed to find out what all of this says?" she said, continuing to look over the paper. "Maybe whenever Leon isn't being lazy then he might be able to transla-"

She was immediately interrupted once she ran directly into a Grox right as she turned a corner to the other corridor. She fell down on top of the unsuspecting Grox, slowly attempting to get up as she tried to figure out what happened. Once she realized that she had landed on top of the alien, she quickly backed away after hearing him growl at her.

"I am so sorry! I wasn't paying attention to where I was going!" she said, now looking down at the Grox as he began standing up. This Grox looked somewhat different from the other ones that she had seen before. His mane appeared to be a lighter brown color, which appeared to be softer that many of the others she had noticed. He was dressed in a military-like uniform, which included a neatly pressed reddish-purple shirt and a pair of black slacks. She also noticed that he was wearing a long, thin, black cape and a golden necklace with a cross-shaped amulet as well. However, the most noticeable features of this Grox included his right eye, which was bionic instead. The lens of this eye glowed with a deep crimson color, while the rest of the cybernetics was a metallic gray. Both his right hand and right foot seemed to be bionic as well.

"I do suggest you watch where you are going, soldier." he said in an annoyed tone, with the same soothing Arabic accent that Leon had. He soon gave Rachel a somewhat strange look. "Are you new here? I don't remember any humans who joined my Alliance."

"Wait… Your Alliance? You are the leader? Look, I'm really sorry for running into you… It won't happen again…"

"I guess that answers my question…" the Grox sighed. "Since you are new here, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Zadok, Emperor of the Central Grox Empire and leader of the Galactic Alliance. Now, why are you wandering around so late at night? Shouldn't you be asleep by now?"

"Well, I kinda slept before I got here... A Grox named Leon had recently saved me from the Omegas, and I kinda fell unconscious on the ship when we were escaping… So now he basically kicked me out of the room since he wanted to sleep, even though he originally said that I could stay there…"

"So, General Leon finally managed to get back? Hopefully he won't get captured again the next time he is fighting the Omegas… Anyway, you should probably be going back to the room. It's very simple for new recruits like you to get lost inside here."

"But what am I supposed to do while I wait for him to wake up? I don't want to just sit somewhere and be bored for hours…"

"Well, there's not much else you can do. Although, if you really can't wait that long for him to wake up, then I suppose you could stay in my room for the night. I wasn't planning on going to sleep anytime soon anyway, since I still have a lot of paperwork to look over…"

"I guess I could do that." she simply replied, glancing down at the floor over towards the paper that she had dropped earlier. She soon knelt down and picked it up, soon handing it to Zadok afterward.

"I'm guessing this belongs to you then?" she asked with a slight smile, holding the paper out to him. "This is what caused me to run over you in the first place… I was trying to read it, but it's in another language…"

Zadok soon took the piece of paper and began to examine it. "You wouldn't be interested in it anyway. All that is typed on here is the recent pieces of equipment that we purchased." She soon noticed him folding the paper up, placing it in one of his pant pockets. "Anyway, I think we should be going to my room now."

Rachel soon began to follow alongside him as he began to walk in the direction that she had just come from.

"Again, I am really sorry about earlier…" she said, still thinking that she needed to forgive herself again.

"Look, it's no big deal." he replied, chuckling slightly. "Just try not to make the same mistake twice."

"Knowing me, I probably will…" she giggled.

Soon enough, they began to enter one of the rooms at the end of the hallway. Rachel peered into the room, noticing what seemed to be a well-decorated office. The walls and floors looked basically like the ones in the hallways, covered in a lustrous, gray metal. Her eyes gazed towards the back of the room, seeing a medium-sized metal desk and a black, cushiony chair behind it. A large, black-colored couch was also sitting in front of the desk as well. A large window was on the wall behind the desk, revealing a much better view of the distant metropolis.

As Zadok entered the room and began to walk towards his desk, Rachel quickly ran towards the window and gazed outside in admiration. She looked up at the crystal clear, starlit sky, once more noticing the ghostly, blue colored gas giant far in the distance, as well as the two faint moons that were orbiting it. A few ships could also be heard overhead after she looked out.

"Whoa…" she whispered, staring out at the sky. After stargazing for a few more seconds, she heard the familiar soothing voice behind her.

"You act like you've never seen an alien planet before…" Zadok said curiously as he sat down in his chair. "I thought your species was highly advanced before its destruction…"

"…Leon mentioned before that it had been destroyed." she sighed, turning to Zadok. "I'm not exactly from this universe, so I don't know anything about what happened…" She soon began walking towards the couch, sitting down on it to test how comfy it felt.

"The Earth in this universe was destroyed by the first Grox Empire, called the Grocian Empire. The Grocians attempted to ally the humans, but the humans refused after learning what kind of damage that the Grocians were doing to the galaxy."

"So why would a powerful Empire destroy a weaker one just because they refused to ally with them?"

"It was because of their Emperor, Groc. He was known as one of the most ruthless Emperors in the entire galaxy at the time. He treated every single lifeform that had less power than he like slaves, caring for nothing but himself. Although, he originally was a very good Emperor. However, over time he changed. He is the reason why nine separate Grox Empires formed."

"And you are the one who killed the Emperor and took his place… right? Leon mentioned that to me earlier…"

"Yes, I did. Someone had to end Groc's reign, and at the time I happened to be one of his most trusted Generals."

"So killing him wasn't much of a problem for you?"

"I never said that… He actually did fight back and nearly killed me first. Anyway, I believe I should be reading my paperwork now. You can still talk while I'm doing this, so don't be afraid to say anything."

Rachel watched him as he picked up a few pieces of paper and began to examine the first one that he saw. She soon leaned back on the couch in order to get comfortable, wondering what she would be doing on the next day...


	6. Chapter 6

Rachel soon began to slowly open her eyes, now realizing that she had fallen asleep on the couch inside Zadok's office. She sluggishly sat up and looked in the direction of his desk, only to see that he wasn't there.

"Oh great…" she said sarcastically, letting out a deep sigh soon afterward. "I'm left alone again… Well, I guess I can look around a bit while he's gone…" After standing up, she walked over towards the window and began to gaze out through it. It appeared to be dawn now, since she noticed two, bright suns in the distance, as well as the light-blue sky.

She continued to look outside for a few more minutes, soon turning around and beginning to examine what had been placed on Zadok's desk. Mainly all that was there were a few stacks of paperwork, all typed in languages that Rachel was unfamiliar with. Soon enough, she carefully sat down in his chair, which she soon realized was actually more comfy than the couch she had been lying on. A slight smile formed on her face as she leaned back in the chair and began to relax. She scooted the chair closer to the desk after a few seconds to continue observing the desk. She picked up a few of the documents, looking over them to see if she could guess what was typed on them.

After she moved a few more papers and neatly stacked them along the right side of the desk, she noticed a few random buttons that were on the surface. Curious as to what these buttons did, she cautiously pressed one of them. Seconds later, a light-blue colored holographic screen appeared in front of her, about the size of a normal laptop. Below it was now what seemed to be a virtual keyboard of the same color as well.

"I wish I had a computer like this…" she said while examining it. "Maybe I can use this to find out more information on this universe." She soon placed her right hand on what seemed to be the virtual mouse pad, soon moving the cursor around randomly across the holographic screen to see if it worked. Luckily for her, the strange, unfamiliar icons on the desktop were actually labeled in English.

"Well finally I can read something…" she quietly giggled. She then moved the cursor over towards the Internet button and double-clicked it.

Once she got to the main Internet screen, she moved the cursor over towards what seemed to be a search bar and began typing the first thing she wanted to search. She first searched for the Galactic Alliance, which led her to click a site that seemingly had a lot of information that she thought could be useful. However, right after she clicked on the website link, she was abruptly interrupted after a popup randomly appeared on the screen. What it appeared to be was a download for a computer update.

"I guess he won't mind if I go ahead and update his computer…" she said, moving the cursor to the button on the popup labeled "download". "Hopefully this won't take long…" Instantly after she clicked the button, the popup disappeared and was substituted by a large loading bar in the center of the screen. Once the download apparently finished, both the holographic screen and the virtual keyboard vanished, appearing only seconds later from restarting.

"That was strange… My computer never updated like that… But this is still an alien computer so it shouldn't be the same as the one I had."

Once the computer fully loaded the desktop screen, she soon noticed a strange new icon with un-translated text below it.

"I wonder how that got there… It wasn't there bef-"

Rachel was immediately interrupted as a large amount of website popups began spamming the screen. Her eyes widened after they fully finished loading, reveling extremely disturbing images…

"They have those sites here too?" she exclaimed, covering the screen with her hands. She paused and took a deep breath. "Oh great… Zadok is gonna kill me once he finds out I just downloaded a virus to his computer…"

She soon quickly pressed the button that she thought would turn it off, causing it to vanish once more. She sighed in relief after the images were finally gone.

"…I should probably leave before he gets back…" she said, slowly standing up out of the chair. "Hopefully he won't suspect that I caused that…" She quickly began making her way towards the exit, leaving the room behind.

"Maybe I should meet up with Leon again… He probably expected me to return before now…"

Once she eventually reached Leon's room, she directly walked over to his bed, thinking that he could still be asleep. Although, after checking the bed, he was no longer there.

"I guess I should start looking for him…" she said, sighing quietly in annoyance. "How does he expect me to automatically know what I'm supposed to be doing here?" After walking out of the room, she began aimlessly walking down the hallway. "Ugh… This is going to take forever to find him. He could be anywhere in this base…" Only seconds later, she heard a familiar voice behind her.

"Rachel, where have you been?" the voice said. She stopped and turned around, relieved once she realized it was Leon.

"I was actually looking for you as well…" she replied. "I kinda fell asleep in Zadok's office. He let me stay there for the night."

Leon said nothing in response after hearing this, seeming to be distracted since he was examining every bit of Rachel with a slight smile on his face.

"…What are you doing?" she asked once she noticed him doing this.

"…Oh, I was just looking at your new uniform." he said, refocusing his gaze to Rachel's face. "It looks good on you. It seems that I have picked out the right size for you as well."

"Well finally you decide to give me a compliment…" she responded with a smile. "Anyway, what am I supposed to do now? Should I be trying to get my own room?"

"At the moment there are no more available rooms. But while you wait, you can stay with me."

"And the last time you said that, you kicked me out…"

"Look… I was extremely tired at that time, and you didn't seem like you were going to sleep anytime soon. It seemed to be a good enough reason. Anyway, I believe it's time for your first mission." He soon began walking in the direction of the nearby elevator, seemingly expecting Rachel to follow.

"…My first mission already?" she asked in a slightly nervous tone, walking alongside Leon. "…Shouldn't I have some type of training first?"

"Missions are the main forms of training we have. Just make sure you don't shoot any of our soldiers and you should be alright." Both he and Rachel entered the elevator after saying this. He pressed the button for it to go to one of the main lower floors. Once the elevator stopped moving, the two exited and began walking through the hallways once more. Many various alien soldiers and guards were walking around here as well, so it was somewhat difficult to maneuver through the random, small crowds. It was noisy around there as well, making it a little complicated for Rachel to hear what Leon said next.

"Right now we are heading towards the armory to get you a weapon or two." he said. "It shouldn't take very long."

As soon as they finally broke free from the crowds and entered what seemed to be the armory, Rachel began looking at the various weapons that were mounted on the walls of the room. High-tech pistols and rifles were the main weapons that she noticed. However, there were also a few bladed melee weapons in there as well. Two male Grox, who were inside this room as well, seemed to be examining a few of the weapons. They walked out only minutes after Leon and Rachel entered.

"…What do you think I should pick?" she asked, looking back at Leon.

"I would suggest you start with a blaster." he replied. "They are the simplest weapons to use. You shouldn't have any problems with one of them. I also suggest you should get an electrically-charged dagger as well."

"And how am I supposed to know what those weapons look like?"

Leon only let out a deep sigh as he approached one of the weapon covered walls. He picked up a small gun that looked similar to a pistol, which made her assume that was a blaster. He walked over to one of the other walls and picked up a dagger as well. The dagger had a small button on the hilt, which she guessed would cause it to become charged with electricity. Once he finished collecting the weapons, he walked back over to Rachel and handed them both to her. Before she placed her new weapons in the correct places on her armor, she examined them for a few seconds.

Just as Rachel saw that Leon was about to speak, he was immediately interrupted after a blaring alarm sounded off for about five seconds. Rachel noticed that the hallways were much quieter now, since she guessed everyone outside the room froze in place.

"…What just happened?" she asked, slightly nervous about the situation.

"That alarm was an intruder alert…" Leon replied, drawing out a blaster from the holster attached to his armor. "Somewhere in this base is an enemy, and since the alarm went off for five seconds, it means the intruder is one of our major enemies… Get your blaster ready."

Rachel nervously pulled out her blaster, feeling herself beginning to tremble as she did so. She now began to hear rapid movement and urgent voices on the exterior of the room. Seconds later, she heard a somewhat faint beeping noise coming from a small device on Leon's belt. She watched him as he pulled out the device and pressed one of the buttons.

"What's the current situation?" she heard him speak into the device. This made her assume that what he was holding now was a communicator of some sort.

/The intruders were last seen somewhere in the basement near the power supply./ a person replied.

"So it's not just one that we're dealing with. How many are there?"

/I believe there were only three… But from what I heard one of them seemed to be far more powerful than the other two… I wasn't actually there to see them myself./

"What faction are these intruders from?"

/I think I heard they were Omegas. I didn't find out what they plan on doing in the basement, but knowing them it can't be anything good./

"Well I'll be down there in a few minutes to handle the situation soon. Only three of them shouldn't be too difficult to hand-" Right before Leon could finish his sentence, all power seemed to instantly shut down, trapping both him and Rachel in the darkness of the room. Rachel's hand tightened around her blaster, unaware of what was going on.

"…I'm pretty sure I know what they were doing in the basement now." he continued to speak into the device. However, instead of the response he was expecting to hear, he heard a loud, electronic snarling sound in the background, and then what seemed to be the hum of two energy bladed weapons. He heard the person he was talking to shout in fear, but was soon silenced a few seconds later. Knowing the person was killed, he placed the communicator back on his belt.

"…Rachel, how well can you see in the dark?" he said quietly to her.

"I can't see anything…" she barely responded, far more nervous than ever. She could feel her heart rapidly pounding inside her chest as she trembled in fear. She noticed that it was absolutely silent around her, making her think that there was no longer anyone outside the room.

"…I'm going to try to get you back to my room." she heard Leon reply. She felt a hand grasp the upper part of her right arm after he said this. "I'll guide you through the base…"

"…But why do I have to hide?" she asked, even though hiding was what she really wanted to do at the moment. "…Why can't I help you fight?"

"First of all, you can't even see in the dark. Second, I don't want you to get killed… I think I might know who is with the two intruders and he can kill you in seconds…"

"…But what about you? How do you expect to fight all three of them alone?"

"I'm sure I'll have assistance. There are plenty of soldiers and guards all around this base. Just don't worry about me for now…"

"I don't hear anyone outside though… What if everyone escaped or something?"

"I don't think that they would just run away like that. Or at least I hope they wouldn't. Hopefully they went down to the basement to fight the intruders."

As Rachel felt Leon pull on her arm slightly as if he wanted her to move towards the door, she began to think of something.

"…How are we even going to get back to your room anyway if the power is out? And how are we supposed to get out of this room?"

She soon noticed that Leon stopped what he was doing before he spoke again. "…I guess you're right about that… It seems like we'll be stuck in here for a while… We should just sit down and wait for the power to be restored."

Rachel felt Leon releasing his grip around her arm, hearing him sit down on the floor beside her. She gently sat down close to him, all while she continued trembling uncontrollably.

"…What if the intruders somehow get inside here?" she nervously asked. "…How will we protect ourselves?"

"I will defend you as much as I can. I won't allow any of them to harm you… But if they do figure out a way to get inside, I want you to run out of the room as quickly as possible, even if you still can't see anything…"

"…I still don't want to leave you behind… If I do, they'll kill you…"

"And if you don't they'll kill us both. I just want you to be safe…"

Complete silence filled the room after Leon finished speaking. Rachel slowly moved over closer to Leon only seconds later, feeling a little bit safer by doing so. She felt the soft fur on one of his arms brush up against one of her own, noticing that she was probably close enough.

"…Most likely they won't find us anyway." she heard Leon say softly. "I'm sure whatever they're looking for isn't in this room, so just don't worry about it…"

"I'm trying…" she replied, still feeling herself tremble. "…But I just can't focus off what is going on…"

"Maybe you should lie down and try to fall asleep then. That should calm you down."

Right after Rachel heard Leon say this, she attempted to slowly lie down across the floor, resting her head on Leon's lap. She heard a short, faint whimper come out of Leon's mouth after she did this, making her think he wasn't expecting her to do that. She slowly moved around slightly in attempt to get at least a little more comfortable, only to hear more whimpers from Leon.

"…Am I hurting you or something?" she whispered, now trying to stop moving.

"…No, not at all…" she heard him quietly reply. "It's a little uncomfortable, but I can handle it... Just concentrate on falling asleep."

Rachel said nothing in response, beginning to calm down. She no longer felt herself trembling any longer, and she began worrying less about what was going on. Soon enough she felt her eyes beginning to close as she now started attempting to fall asleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Rachel was abruptly woken up with a jolt as she heard the sounds of metallic footsteps echoing down the hallway. Now is when she noticed that the room was filled with a dim lighting that flickered every few seconds, making her assume that the power was only partially restored. Attempting to focus off the distant noises, she looked over at Leon, who was now lying on the floor on his back. She knew that he was asleep since his eyes were now closed.

The threatening, metallic clanking only continued to get closer to the room that she was hiding in. She felt her heart's pulse beginning to speed up once again, and her body beginning to tremble. She knew that those noises meant that the intruders were approaching.

"Leon… Wake up…" she whispered, pushing on his shoulder slightly. However, instead of the response that she wanted, he only made a small, growling noise and turned away from her on his side. "Ugh! How can you be asleep already? You already slept through the entire night!" She continued pushing on his shoulder for a few more seconds, getting increasingly annoyed that he wasn't waking up. After finally giving up on her attempt to wake him up, she began refocusing on the noises once more.

"Hopefully whoever's out there didn't hear me…" she said quietly to herself. Only seconds after she said this, the noises stopped right when it seemed to be directly in front of the door to the room. Rachel swiftly stood up and aimed her blaster at the door, knowing that since Leon was asleep that he wouldn't be able to protect her. Even though she was ready to defend both herself and Leon, what happened next frightened her the most…

"I know you're in there…" a malicious, electronic voice said with an Arabic accent. "There is no one in this entire base that can hide from me. Now, I suggest you unlock the door so that I can capture you without any problems…"

"…How do you know I'm in here?" Rachel asked, feeling herself beginning to tremble once more as she continued to grip onto the blaster.

"Don't think I'm deaf." the alien growled. "My hearing is highly advanced, and I could hear you all the way down the hallway. Now, as I said before, unlock the door. Otherwise I will have to take you by force…"

"…But I don't even know how to unlock the door!" she lied. "I'm kinda new to this universe and I'm not familiar with all of this technology…" The alien didn't respond to her for a few more seconds. However, she now managed to hear a strange humming noise outside the room.

"Then you leave me no choice…" Right after the alien said this, two, bright-red blades of energy were pierced through the top of the door. Rachel winced in fear as she watched the metal closest to the blades begin to melt from the intense heat. She now noticed that the alien seemed to be slowly carving a large hole in the door. She backed up a few steps and kept her blaster aimed at the door, knowing that whoever was outside the room could attack her at any second.

"_I wish Leon was awake right now…"_ she thought as she waited for the alien to appear. Soon enough, the alien removed the blades right after they both reached the bottom of the door.

"_Any second now… I really hope this guy isn't hard to beat…" _Only seconds later, she heard a piercing thump as the bulky chunk from the door was kicked inside, which nearly managed to hit Rachel before she hastily moved out of the way. She caught a glimpse of Leon jolting upwards once this happened. However, her main focus was towards the menacing alien walking through the door.

The alien was much taller than she expected, seeming to also be entirely secured in a lustrous, dark-gray cybernetic armor, in which most of it gave him the same appearance as an Omega Grox. His helmet, however, made him seem much like a type of insect, having powerful, bug-like jaws, and the overall armor design seemed to be far more regal, also having a few gold-color markings along random places of his armor. The two energy blades that he used to cut through the door seemed to be nowhere in sight, however she guessed that the hilts of the swords were the two metal objects attached to his belt. She also noticed that behind him was a long, thin, cape that was jet black on the outside and a deep red on the inside, which flowed down his sleek, metallic back.

Rachel froze in fear as she continued to stare at the immense cyborg, who also continued to glare back at her with his terrifying, glowing, bionic eyes. In the corner of her eye, she noticed Leon beginning to slowly stand up with his blaster aimed directly at the alien.

"Omega…" she heard Leon speak as he glared at the alien. Rachel instantly remembered when Leon mentioned the name of the Omega Grox leader, who also had the same name. She soon realized that was exactly who she was now facing.

"So, General Leon, we meet again…" Omega replied. "I do suggest that you step aside and hand the female over to me. I'm sure you don't want me to cause any fatal damage to either one of you…"

"And why would you want to take her and not me?" Leon skeptically asked. "I'm more important than she is! She's nothing compared to me!"

"Hey!" Rachel shouted, looking at Leon. "You know I'm right here and I'd rather not here anymore of your insults!" Leon was about to speak, however he was interrupted by Omega.

"So… I can see that you aren't exactly allies with this Grox…" he said in a devious tone, shifting his gaze towards Rachel. "With me, you would be treated as an equal, only if you agreed to become my apprentice…"

"I never do understand why you are always trying to get new apprentices." Leon growled. "I guess this is why you decided to attack our base?"

"My original plan for attacking this base was the same as usual, which is to capture soldiers and have them prepared for assimilation." Omega replied, eyeing Leon. "However, after seeing your little 'companion', I can tell that she would make an excellent apprentice…"

"You better just leave now and go back to your own base." Leon threatened. "Because you aren't going to be taking her anywhere. And I already know that she doesn't want to leave… I already told her all about your assimilation plans, and I know that she would never agree to accept your beliefs."

"Why don't you just let the girl talk for herself?" Omega growled. "Just because you told her about my beliefs doesn't mean that she rejects them." He soon looked back at Rachel after saying this. "Isn't that right? Now, I want you to come with me."

"…I'm not going anywhere with you." Rachel nervously replied, hesitating slightly before speaking.

"That wasn't a question…" Omega growled, beginning to slowly step forward in her direction. "You're coming with me whether you like it or n-"

Right before he could finish the sentence, Rachel subconsciously pulled the trigger of her blaster, shooting Omega directly between the eyes. She watched him jolt backwards from shock, but it unfortunately didn't seem to cause any harm to him. Now is when she noticed that what she did was a terrible mistake…

"How dare you attack me!" Omega snarled in rage. Without warning, he charged forwards at Rachel and grasped her throat, lifting her up and slamming her back onto the wall. Rachel yelled out in both pain and fear as she began thrashing and kicking at him in attempt to escape from his clutches. She barely noticed Leon swiftly turning towards Omega as he began to rapidly shoot at the cyborg's eyes.

"Let her go Omega!" Leon shouted as he continued shooting. A loud snarl came from Omega as he quickly turned towards the door, all while still grasping onto Rachel's neck. Almost instantly afterward, he tossed Rachel out into the hallway through the opening in the doorway, causing her to drop her blaster as she crashed onto the solid, ice-cold flooring.

As she struggled to reach for her blaster and stand up, placing her blaster back in its holster after picking it up off the floor. She nearly managed to notice the two nearby Omega Grox, who quickly succeeded to restrain her before she had a chance to move away. She began struggling wildly to free herself from their grips, but they were far more powerful than she was. She quickly turned her attention back towards the room, now incapable of seeing both Omega and Leon. However, she knew that Leon was being beaten terribly, hearing his loud, heartbreaking, yelps of agony. Unable to handle hearing this any longer, she knew she had to stop it.

"Please stop this, Omega!" she yelled, feeling a few tears roll down her face as she spoke. "I'll do whatever you say, just please, stop!" After saying this, she heard one last yelp from Leon, finally seeing Omega slowly emerge from the room soon afterward.

"Now, if you only said that much sooner, then maybe I wouldn't have nearly killed your little friend." he growled, staring down at Rachel. "His chances for survival are very slim now, all because you wouldn't obey my commands. When we get back to my space station, I'm going to have to teach you the importance of obedience around me."

Rachel said absolutely nothing in response, gazing up at Omega in fear as the two Grox held her in place. She was worrying the most about Leon at the moment, knowing that he had been badly injured even though she never managed to see him after he was attacked.

"Guards, release her, and make sure she follows me." he said as he began walking down the hallway toward the exit of the base. Both of the guards made a threatening growling noise as their grips loosened around Rachel's arms. One of them gave her a stern push on the back after being released, seemingly trying to make her start walking. She knew this was the perfect chance to run away from the three, but she knew that she could never be able to outrun any of them. Despite knowing this, she immediately took off running the opposite direction from the exit, sprinting through the hallways as if her life depended on it.

"Get her!" she heard Omega yell in the distance. She continued running forward as she listened to the sharp, metallic footsteps of Omega and the two guards who were now pursuing her. She rapidly maneuvered through the maze-like corridors in search of the nearest elevator, knowing that it should work since the power was at least partially restored.

As she continued to run, she noticed five Alliance soldiers who were all immediately alarmed after seeing her run by them. She hoped that they could be a good distraction for the three Omegas, or at least enough for her to have time to find a good hiding place. She was relieved after hearing the rapid blasts of gunfire. After managing to catch a glimpse of what was behind her, she noticed that the three cyborgs were no longer pursing her. Even though she knew this, she continued running towards the elevator as quickly as possible.

Right as she began to think that reaching the elevator would be extremely simple now, she began to hear the familiar sound of metallic footsteps a distance behind her, rapidly getting close to her every second. She quickly glimpsed at what was behind her, only to see that Omega had continued to pursue her. Even though she finally managed to see the elevator doors only feet in front of her, she feared that Omega would soon catch up to her.

As she feared the worst, she approached the elevator door and rapidly pressed the "up" button on the wall nearby. Her heart was pounding intensely as she waited for the door to open, hearing Omega swiftly reaching her location. Right as the door slid open, she hastily slipped inside and pressed the button that would take her to the top floor. She stepped backwards towards the very back of the elevator as she watched the deadly cyborg sprinting towards her. Just as Omega approached the elevator and nearly barged inside, the door instantly slammed shut. She heard a loud clanking noise only seconds after the door had closed, assuming that Omega had collided with the door.

Rachel slowly slid down to the floor of the elevator and let out a big sigh of relief after the elevator began making its way up the shaft. She could still feel her heart racing as she attempted to relax.

"_That was WAY too close…" _she thought, staring at the walls as she continued waiting for the elevator to reach her destination. _"I really hope that Leon is alright… I wish I could've had a chance to actually protect him… Those Omegas were just too strong for me to handle…" _

After only a few minutes of finally calming down, she noticed a strange, echoing sound coming from below the elevator a short distance down the shaft. She quickly stood up and looked downwards as she heard the noises continuing to approach. Only seconds later, she jolted backwards as she saw sharp, razor-like claws piercing through the floor only a few feet away from where she was standing. What really frightened her was when she heard the familiar humming of an energy blade, right before it was thrust upwards through the floor as well. She knew that Omega still wasn't going to give up on his pursuit. Noticing that he was carving a hole in the floor, she quickly moved back toward a safer location to avoid being sliced by the blade.

Once the loose piece of flooring fell out of the bottom of the elevator, Omega instantly began to hoist himself upwards, scraping onto the surface inside with one hand as the other held his energy sword, starting to carve out more of the flooring in order to make it easier for him to pass through the hole. Rachel's heart began pounding rapidly once more as she began to think of a plan to get rid of him. This is when she remembered the dagger that Leon had given her, which could be charged with electricity. She remembered that the first Omega Grox that she defeated was extremely vulnerable to electricity, which gave her the idea to use the dagger against Omega.

She slowly approached Omega as he continued clawing at the surface, who was also now glaring intensely at her as she did so. Without warning, he began to slice rapidly at her feet with his sword, which made her quickly back away from his reach. Now is when she decided to something a bit risky. She speedily charged forward at Omega while she jerked the dagger out of its scabbard. Right when she was close enough to him, she swiftly bent down slightly and thrust the dagger directly into his mouth. Her thumb slid over to the button on the hilt, causing its blade to immediately become electrified once it scraped the back of his throat.

Omega instantly let out an almost deafening, raspy yelp as the electricity surged through his body. Rachel quickly pulled back her dagger as she noticed him losing his grip on the flooring. In only seconds, the intense pain forced him to release his grip, causing him to fall down the elevator shaft. Rachel soon sighed in relief after sheathing her dagger.

"_Finally… It's over…" _she thought. _"I hope the fall actually manages to kill him… I don't think I can handle running from that insane cyborg any longer…"_

After merely a few more minutes, the elevator finally reached the top floor. Rachel exited the elevator and quickly began running down the hallway towards Zadok's room.

"_I hope that Zadok is in his office now… Or at least somewhere nearby… I really don't want to have to look around for him…"_

Right as Rachel entered the office, she immediately noticed Zadok sitting behind his desk, seeming to be typing something on his virtual computer. He seemed to have an irritated expression on his face at the moment, which made her remember about the virus that she accidentally downloaded to his computer. She didn't want to say anything about it, however.

"Zadok, I really need your help right now..." she said to him after entering the room. She saw him looking up at her after she said this.

"And why do you need my help?" he asked, having a slightly annoyed tone in his voice.

"Leon was attacked by Omega in the armory on the first floor and is severely injured… I really don't want him to die, so could you please send a few of your soldiers to help him?"

"I will soon, but where is Omega right now?" Zadok began moving his hand towards a device on his desk, which seemed to look much like a communicator.

"Probably somewhere in the basement now… He tried to cut his way into the bottom of the elevator while I was still inside it, but I managed to make him lose his grip by stabbing him with my dagger…"

Instead of responding, Zadok picked up the communicator and sent a transmission to one of his soldiers, telling him the current location of Leon. After he was finished, he set down the communicator and turned off his computer, soon standing up and walking towards the door.

"…Where are you going?" Rachel asked, watching Zadok as he walked away. She soon started to follow behind him after he exited the room.

"I'm going to deal with Omega." he replied, looking at Rachel as she managed to catch up with him. "I know that he is still alive."

"…But what if he tries to attack you? He defeated Leon with absolutely no problems…"

"Even though I may seem defenseless, I do have a weapon of my own." he said, smiling slightly. "And you will see what I mean once we find him." He approached the elevator and pressed the "down" button on the wall, now waiting for the door to open. Since the elevator was already there at the time, it was only seconds before it opened.

"…Um…We?" she asked in a nervous tone, following Zadok as he walked in the elevator. "…Do I really have to go? I don't want him to try to capture me all over again…" After Zadok pressed the button that would take them to the basement, he spoke once more.

"Trust me, I won't give him a chance to even attempt to capture you." he said, looking directly at Rachel. "You will be safe as long as you're with me."


	8. Chapter 8

As the elevator continued moving down the shaft, Rachel decided to start a conversation in order to at least help herself calm down in this situation.

"…So what exactly are we going to be doing once we get down to the basement?" she nervously asked. "Omega probably knows that someone's gonna be coming to get him, and he could have thought of a plan by now…"

"Don't think that I haven't thought about that already." Zadok replied. "Just don't worry about it. He may be more powerful than I am, but he cannot outsmart me." Right as he finished the sentence, the elevator froze in place as the dim lights inside flickered off. The only thing lighting the area now was Zadok's glowing, red-colored bionic eye. Rachel let out a deep sigh of annoyance after this happened.

"Great… First I was trapped in a dark room with Leon, and now I'm trapped in a dark elevator with you…" she sighed. "Let me guess… The elevator is nowhere near the basement…"

"Unfortunately… yes." he sighed, shifting his gaze towards the hole in the flooring that Omega recently created.

"…So how are we going to get out of here? The power was probably off for about an hour the last time it happened…"

"Well, I do see one way out." he replied, still looking down at the hole. "There should be a ladder nearby in the elevator shaft, and I'm pretty sure we would be able to reach it from here."

"Uh…" Rachel nervously said, looking down the hole as well. "That's a long way down… And I really don't want to end up falling…"

"Don't worry, I'll make sure you don't fall. Anyway, I want you to go down first."

Rachel's eyes widened after hearing what Zadok last said. "I am NOT going first."

"Well if you do fall, I would be able to catch you if you were below me. So, yes, you will be going first."

"And how exactly are you going to catch me that way? That's impossible!"

"You know, you really need to stop underestimating me." he sighed as he kneeled down and began looking for the ladder. After he managed to find it, Rachel watched him as he disappeared downwards through the hole. All she could see as he climbed down was the red glow from his bionic eye.

Without saying another word, Rachel gradually knelt down to the edge of the hole. However, as she looked around the wall, she could see absolutely nothing.

"…Zadok, can you stop for a little while and shine your eye up here so I can see the ladder?" she asked, still feeling uneasy about the situation.

"Sure." he simply replied, shifting his gaze upwards. The lighting from Zadok's cybernetic eye was dim, since he was farther down now, but it still managed to help Rachel to see the ladder.

"Thanks…" she said quietly. After examining the ladder for a few more seconds, she reluctantly stretched one of her hands out down through the hole, grasping onto one of the cold, metal bars of the ladder. Once this was done, she grasped the same bar with her other hand and carefully began moving her feet down.

In only seconds, the red glow disappeared without warning. She could hear soft, metallic clanking noises as she instantly froze in fear, assuming that Zadok began to climb down the ladder once more. He obviously realized that she wasn't moving anymore after she heard what he said next.

"Rachel, start moving down." he said with a growl.

"…But I can't see anything…" she nervously replied, clutching onto the bars tightly. "It would help if you were closer to me… I could probably see the ladder better then…"

The only response from him she heard was a deep sigh, soon hearing him moving back upwards toward her. The red glow was gradually getting brighter, but soon stopped after he had stopped climbing.

"Is that any better?" he asked, sounding annoyed.

"A little…" she replied, beginning to slowly move down the ladder.

After about 30 minutes of climbing down, Rachel couldn't handle it any longer. She stopped moving in order to have time to rest. Only seconds later, she heard Zadok stop moving as well.

"…Why did you stop?" he asked, looking up at Rachel.

"…How much longer do we have until we get to the basement?" she said, completely changing the subject.

"Well, we've been climbing for probably 30 minutes, so I would say it would take 30 more to get all the way down."

"Ugh! Are you serious? I'm tired and I need to rest! I really don't know how you're not tired too!"

Only seconds after saying this, the lights inside the elevator shaft flickered back on, and a loud, mechanized noise could be heard overhead.

"Finally the power is back!" Rachel exclaimed. "I think we just should have waited inside the elevator…"

"Well you're the one who wanted to leave." Zadok growled. "Anyway, we have a problem now…"

"And what's the problem? The lights are back on, so shouldn't we just be able to climb back up to the elevator and ride it down to the basement?"

"The problem IS the elevator. That noise above us is the elevator making its way down the shaft, and we are directly in its path… Luckily for us there is a door right below me that we could try to open before we are crushed to death, but we will have to be extremely quick…"

Rachel's eyes widened after hearing what Zadok said. Her gaze rapidly shifted upwards, seeing the elevator speedily moving towards them. She could feel herself beginning to tremble as she continued to tightly clutch onto the bars of the ladder. "We aren't going to make it in time! It's moving too fast!"

After a few seconds of silence, Rachel could hear Zadok beginning to move up the ladder, seeing him stop once he was beside her. She soon felt his warm, organic hand grasping her arm.

"What are you doing?" she exclaimed, looking at Zadok. "We need to at least try to get out of here!"

"You were right when you said we wouldn't be able to escape in time…" he replied, gazing directly into her eyes. "But now I'm going to do something that I should have done much earlier…"

Rachel quickly looked upwards as the elevator continued speeding down towards them. Right when she did, a bright, white-colored light of energy flashed in front of her, leaving her in complete shock. In only seconds, the energy vanished and she felt her back slam against a metallic surface. What she now saw above her was a normal, gray-colored ceiling, covered mostly by metallic pipes and various colored wires.

"…What just happened?" she asked, staring at the ceiling. She expected Zadok to be somewhere nearby for some reason. She heard movement beside her, soon seeing Zadok standing up beside her.

"I teleported us to the basement." he replied, gazing down at her with a slight grin.

"…Why couldn't you have just done that before?" she shouted, feeling her fear instantly turn into annoyance.

"Well, I didn't exactly think abou-" Before he could finish the sentence, the lights rapidly flickered off once more. "…I might need to fix that generator now."

"Yes, you probably should…" Rachel sighed, beginning to sluggishly stand back up. She was relieved to be standing on solid ground once again.

"It shouldn't take too long." she heard him say as he turned around and began sauntering away. "By the way, watch out for Omega."

"…Omega?" she asked, walking forward to the red glow from Zadok's eye that she saw in the distance. She now began to feel her fear gradually returning as she walked. "…And where would he b-" Rachel felt her foot slam against a large object that was lying on the floor, immediately losing her balance as she collapsed on the other side. "Ugh… why didn't you tell me about that thing in my way?"

"Actually I just did." she heard in the distance. "You just tripped over Omega… Anyway, now that you've found him, check to see if he is still alive."

"What? Do you really want him to kill me? He could wake up any second now! Besides, how am I supposed to check to see if he is alive anyway? He's nothing but a robot!"

"He's still organic under that armor. The metal is just a replacement for most of his skin. Now, all you have to do is take his helmet off and check for signs of breathing."

"Fine… But if he tries to attack me, I'm blaming you." Rachel soon carefully climbed on top of Omega, turning to where she thought his head was and began feeling around for his helmet. Unlike what she expected, his armor was actually warm to the touch. She was immediately confused once her hands finally reached one of the edges of his armor, slowly beginning to remove what she thought was his helmet. "His helmet feels a lot different now… Did he just all of a sudden change it or something?"

"…Rachel, have you ever thought that you might be checking around on the wrong end?" Zadok sighed. "His helmet never did change…"

Rachel's eyes immediately widened after hearing what Zadok said. She paused for a few seconds, carefully snapping the piece of metal back in place. She was slightly embarrassed from what she just did. "I thought you would have warned me if I was on the wrong end…"

"Well I can't exactly see you at the moment. I'm behind a very large generator right now. Anyway, I should be done repairing this soon. It's just low on electricity and will be very simple for me to fix."

"Okay..." she sighed. She soon crawled over to the other side of Omega, sitting on what she thought was his chest. In the distance she could hear a faint sound of electricity, guessing that was Zadok fixing the generator. Focusing back on Omega, she began to feel around for his helmet once more. "Finally I found it…" she said quietly to herself as she grasped his helmet. After carefully removing it, she gently placed the helmet down on the floor beside his head.

"_Now, I wonder how I'm supposed to know if he's breathing…"_ she thought, feeling around on his head. _"Heh, I'm actually surprised that his face isn't made of metal…"_ After thinking over how she was going to figure out if he was breathing, she lowered her head down to his own and hovered one of her ears over his mouth. At first she heard a faint breathing noise, but soon changed into a deep, raspy growl. Rachel froze in fear after hearing this, slowly backing her head away slightly and shifting her gaze towards Omega's face. Now, she saw his two, terrifying, cybernetic eyes glaring angrily back at her.

"Uh… Zadok…!" Rachel nervously shouted, looking in the direction of where she thought Zadok was now at. "…I think he's awake…!" Before Rachel was able to look back at Omega, she was punched directly in the center of her chest, sending her backwards onto the floor. She speedily looked back towards Omega's direction, hearing the mechanical sounds of him standing back up.

"You're mine now!" he furiously snarled, continuing to glare down at Rachel. "You were a fool to have come here, but now you are right where I want you!"

Right when Rachel noticed Omega beginning to slowly approach her, the lights flickered on and the sounds of the various machinery in the room could be heard nearby. After quickly focusing back on Omega, she instantly noticed the appearance of his organic head, since he was still no longer wearing his helmet. Surprisingly to Rachel, his face looked strikingly handsome and quite human-like, except for his long, pointy ears that pointed upwards, his red-orange fur, and his dark-brown colored mane.

"_A…human?" _she thought as she stared up at Omega. She was frozen in fear at this point, too terrified to even move.

Without warning, a few bolts of electricity shot out from Zadok's direction, directly hitting Omega. He yelled out in pain and fell to his knees as the electricity seemed to intensify. She quickly looked over at the direction she saw the electricity coming from, only to see that Zadok was shooting it out of his organic hand.

"Uh… How are you doing that?" Rachel asked as she slowly stood up. She quickly turned her focus back to Omega as she did so.

"Being part Deity allows me to have a variety of powers that normal Grox wouldn't have." Zadok boasted. "And control over electricity is one of them." After he lowered his hand and stopped the electrical current, Omega immediately collapsed to the floor. Now, Omega seemed to be unconscious once more.

"…I wish you were around when he was attacking Leon…" Rachel sighed, looking down at Omega. "…Anyway, why does Omega's face kinda look… human? It kinda makes me wonder since the humans had been destroyed here… Is he like a Grox-Human hybrid or something?"

"Well, it's actually a bit more complicated than that." Zadok replied while approaching Rachel. "He was originally a Grox to begin with, but he had himself mutated with the DNA from a few different species. And the human DNA is obviously one of them."

"Oh…" Rachel simply replied. Only seconds later, a nearby door slid open, and three aliens stormed in the room, two of which were the wolf-like soldiers while the remaining one was a Grox. The Grox was wearing a dark-grey colored trench coat and jet-black colored slacks. Two, sleek blasters were strapped to the belt on his waist as well. This Grox was also noticeably a cyborg, having the similar bionic eye, hand, and foot as Zadok. As one of the soldiers began putting energy cuffs around Omega's hands, the mysterious Grox soon spoke.

"Zadok, I thought you said this base was highly protected." he said in a seemingly Russian accent. "I would think that since your planet is so close to the Galactic Core, then it would be more difficult for Omegas to get to. I don't exactly appreciate finally visiting this place, expecting the security to be unstoppable, and then finding out that the leader of the Omegas somehow got in here as well."

"My base is protected, but you should know that people like Omega usually find some way to get through my military…" Zadok growled in response.

"…Well, at least that abomination will finally be under control for now." he said with a slight smile. His gaze soon shifted towards Rachel's direction. "So, I see you have a human slave with you now… How did you manage to get it? I thought the humans were supposed to be extinct…"

Rachel immediately glared at the Grox after hearing what he said. "First of all, I am a her, not an it." she replied in an annoyed tone. "Second, I am definitely NOT a slave. My name is Rachel, and I am actually a soldier."

"A soldier?" the Grox chuckled in disbelief. "Zadok, what is it really supposed to be? I seriously want the truth."

"She really is a soldier…" Zadok sighed, sounding somewhat annoyed as well. "You know that I don't allow slavery in my Empire."

"Well I suggest you start allowing it soon. That is probably why my army is far more powerful than yours. All inferior creatures should be forced to work for us Grox."

"You know, you are really starting to sound a lot like Groc now. He thought exactly like that…"

"How many times must I remind you that he's my grandfather? We practically share the same beliefs… Anyway, I believe you should improve your security while I'm staying here. I'm not in the mood to be attacked by any random threat that manages to make its way in here." The Grox soon turned around, beginning to exit the room. "And also, you should probably teach that human some manners. It should know that is no way to act around a Grox Emperor."

After the Grox exited the room, Rachel let out a deep sigh of annoyance. She now noticed that Omega and the two soldiers were no longer there, guessing that they had taken him out of the room already.

"…So who was that prick supposed to be?" Rachel asked in an irritated tone.

"That was Emperor Totus..." Zadok sighed. "He is known as the Emperor of the Southern Grox Empire and is currently an ally of my Alliance…"

"…How could you even ally someone like him?" she asked, looking over at Zadok. "I really wouldn't think that you would ally a person who has the same beliefs as the former Emperor that you killed…"

"He was actually the one who asked for an alliance… I only accepted his request because of his powerful military…" He paused for a few seconds, soon deciding to change the subject. "Anyway, I'm guessing you're probably hungry right now... You haven't eaten anything ever since you got here…"

"Yes, I am getting hungry…" she sighed. "But where am I supposed to eat?"

"Don't worry, I'll lead you to where you need to go." he chuckled as he began to walk towards the exit. "You will now be eating in the mess hall. But don't expect to find any familiar foods in there."

"I wasn't expecting to find any familiar foods around here anyway…" she replied with a slight giggle as she followed alongside Zadok. After they both exited the room, Rachel spoke once more. "…Anyway, if your 'ally' Totus decides to insult me again, I'm going to punch him across the face whether he's an Emperor or not."

"Well, I'm sure you will have that chance sometime soon…" Zadok replied, smirking slightly.

After Zadok and Rachel rode up an elevator to the first floor and managed to navigate their way through the somewhat crowded hallways, they finally reached the mess hall. There wasn't a door for this area, so Rachel was able to easily look inside.

"When you are done eating, immediately go back to my office." Zadok said before Rachel entered the room. "And also, if you happen to meet up with Totus again, try not to cause any trouble…"

"I'll try, but I can't make you any promises…" Rachel smirked. After seeing Zadok begin to walk away from her, she entered inside the mess hall. As she looked around, she instantly noticed many different aliens who were already in here, almost as crowded as the hallways. Most of the aliens were already seated and eating whatever food they decided to pick out, while a few groups were standing in random places, carrying out conversations.

As Rachel walked towards where the food was located, she noticed some of the aliens giving her strange looks as she passed by them, which is actually what she expected them to do since she knew they probably hadn't ever seen a human before. After she finally made it to where the food was, she carefully picked up a tray, a fork, and a knife, soon beginning to examine the many alien foods. A few minutes after she looked at the unfamiliar foods, she eventually managed to pick up a decent-looking piece of meat and a few, somewhat small pieces of fruit as well. As she walked over to where the drinks were and began pouring a cup of water, she managed to catch a glimpse of what seemed to be Totus sitting down at one of the many tables. He hadn't seemed to notice her yet, so she didn't really worry about him at the moment. Soon enough, she managed to find a place to sit that was away from where most of the aliens were, now beginning to finally eat.

After she was finished with her meal, she leisurely stood back up and threw the trash away in one of the many trashcans, exiting the room and beginning to walk through the hallways.

"_I should probably go back to Zadok's office now…"_ Rachel thought as she began looking for an elevator. _"Hopefully there won't be any distractions on the way."_


	9. Chapter 9

Rachel sighed as she continued to walk through the crowded hallways, looking for the nearest elevator so she could return to Zadok's office. Once she finally made it to one of the less crowded areas, she was abruptly interrupted by a forceful shove that managed to push her against the nearby wall. Right when she realized what had happened, she soon noticed Totus walking away in front of her.

"What was that for?" she shouted in annoyance, following behind Totus.

"You were in my way." he growled, not even glancing at Rachel as he continued to walk.

"I'd think it's best to say 'excuse me'." Rachel said, stopping in the middle of the hallway. "You know, you don't have to be rude to me all the time."

Totus managed to laugh slightly after hearing what Rachel said, soon stopping as well and turning around to face her. "And why would I waste my time being polite to a human?"

"…If you don't stop bothering me, then I'm going to have to tell Zadok. You wouldn't like that, would you?" she replied, glaring at Totus.

"Ha! He isn't going to do anything to me. So I can bother you all I want!" After he finished saying this, he shoved Rachel once more.

At this point, Rachel was too much angered to sensibly think about what to do in response. Right before he was able to turn back around and walk away, she quickly kicked him right in between the legs. Totus instantly yelped loudly in pain and fell to his knees.

"You're going to wish you didn't just do that!" he exclaimed, whimpering slightly as he spoke. A few random aliens who had been walking around in the hallways immediately stopped and began staring at both Rachel and Totus as if they were wondering what was going on.

"Don't make me kick you again." Rachel threatened. "Because I'm not afraid to hurt you. Just because you're an Emperor doesn't mean that you can insult me without suffering the consequences."

"You pathetic human!" he shouted with a growl. Right when he seemed to be reaching for one of the blasters that was strapped to his belt, Rachel immediately kicked him again in the exact same place she did before. Totus loudly yelped once more, soon collapsing to the floor.

All Rachel did in response to this was laugh at Totus' pain and simply walk away. She could hear a few chuckles from some of the eavesdroppers, while the remaining ones were trying to see if Totus was alright.

After finally reaching Zadok's office, Rachel opened the door and walked inside the room with a smirk as she noticed Zadok sitting behind his desk.

"What's so funny Rachel?" he asked, looking up at her as she began wandering over towards him.

"I just kicked Totus in the nuts…twice." Rachel replied, grinning as she sat down on the couch in front of Zadok and began attempting to get comfortable.

"…Didn't I tell you not to cause any trouble?" he asked after letting out a deep sigh. "We can't afford to lose our alliance with him."

"Well he was bothering me… He shoved me twice and kept insulting me… So I think he deserved it."

"No excuses Rachel… I still told you not to cause any trouble. Anyway, I want you to deliver a package to one of my allies."

"A package? To who?" Rachel asked, now curious as to what the package was, and who she was supposed to give it to.

"A Grox Emperor in the northern arm of the galaxy." Zadok replied. "His name is Emperor Yuri."

"So, how am I supposed to get to this Emperor? I really don't know how to fly a ship yet…" Right after saying this, she heard the door open behind her.

"That's what I'm for." she heard a familiar voice happily say behind her. Rachel quickly stood up from the couch and turned towards the door, only to see that Leon was now standing there.

"Leon! You're alright!" Rachel ecstatically shouted, running over to him and giving him a big hug. After finally releasing him from her embrace, she spoke once again. "I was afraid you had died… How exactly did you recover so quickly?"

"You would be amazed at how advanced our healing technology is…" he replied with a smile. He soon shifted his gaze over to Zadok. "So Emperor, where is the package?"

Zadok soon reached downwards behind his desk, soon picking it up and placing a somewhat small package on the surface of the desk. "This package contains extremely valuable information on the Omegas, and could be very hazardous if it were to fall in the wrong hands. Well, any enemy faction that wasn't the Omegas."

"Don't worry, we'll keep it safe." Leon replied as he walked over to Zadok's desk and picked up the package. "You can always trust us." He soon turned back around, walking towards the exit once more. Rachel followed behind him as he walked out into the hallways.

"…I'm really glad to know that you're alright…" Rachel said, walking closely alongside Leon. "Omega talked like he had killed you or something…"

"I actually feared the same about you…" Leon replied. "How exactly did you escape from him? I've never heard of anyone who could do that…"

"I managed to run away after he stupidly told his guards to release me." she smirked. "He actually expected me to follow him out of the base... Anyway, he did chase after me after I ran away from him, but I found one of the elevators and got away from him for at least a few minutes. However, he somehow climbed up the shaft and carved a hole through the floor of the elevator, but that's when I electrocuted him with my dagger and forced him to fall down into the basement."

"I told you that dagger would be useful…" he said with a smile. "So what exactly happened to Omega? Did he survive the fall?"

"Unfortunately he did… Me and Zadok went down to the basement to find him, but Zadok electrocuted him and a few of those wolf soldiers took him away. And that's when I ended up meeting Totus…"

"…You met Totus? Is he still acting like a complete jerk to everyone?"

"Well, he was to me and Zadok… But I think we're even now." After she said this, they both entered one of the elevators and began going down to the first floor.

"How so?" Leon asked, looking over at Rachel as they waited.

"Let's just say that I kicked him twice in a very painful spot after he started annoying me later on…" she replied, smirking once more.

"Ouch…" Leon chuckled. "Well, he probably did deserve that. I'm just surprised he didn't get his guards to arrest you or something stupid like that. He kinda overreacts to certain situations."

"I didn't see anyone with him… Besides, the only ones watching seemed to find it funny as well."

"Heh, I guess that's proof that no one here really likes him. Which they don't."

"…So what's his problem anyway? Why does he always seem to act like a prick all the time?"

"Well supposedly his insane father, Emperor Erza, abused him when he was much younger. It caused him to gain the same cruelty that his father had, but it seemed to have worn off after a while. He's actually slightly friendlier than he was before…"

"And is his father still alive?" she asked, actually feeling somewhat sorry for Totus now after hearing what happened to him.

"Yes, unfortunately he is." he sighed. "Currently he is the Emperor of both the Southeastern and Southwestern Empires, and is actually a major threat to the Alliance."

"…So what exactly makes him insane? Is he just like…crazy or something?"

"I guess you could say that… A few of his beliefs are kind of…strange. He actually believes it is completely moral to eat sentient creatures, especially his own species…"

"Eww… That's disgusting…" she grimaced, soon noticing the elevator doors sliding open afterward. "So, basically Totus' problem is that he comes from a bad family? I already know that Groc was his grandfather…"

"Yes, that's pretty much it." he simply replied as he exited the elevator. Rachel began to follow alongside him once more as they walked out into the crowded hallways.

Once the two finally managed to exit the base, they both began walking over to one of the nearby ships inside the hanger.

"We'll be taking one of my own ships to deliver this to the Emperor, so hopefully we don't have any problems on our way there." Leon said as he approached the ship. After he entered it, Rachel followed him inside. Once Leon sat down in the pilot's seat, and Rachel sat down in the co-pilot's seat, he began to press a few buttons on the control panel in front of him that seemed to activate the ship.

"…So, I guess this would be considered my first mission?" Rachel asked, gazing over at Leon.

"Yes, I would say it probably is." he replied, continuing to focus on the control panel. After a few seconds passed by, the ship took off and began to exit the atmosphere of the planet.

"I kinda expected my first mission to have a bit more action in it…" Rachel sighed. "But I guess I'm not ready for something like that, right?"

"Well, you never know. This seemingly simple mission can turn life-threatening at any second. First, we'll have to worry about patrol ships belonging to the Omegas. They have these ships so that they can easily find and capture lifeforms that they can bring back to their base for assimilation. Second, there is a war going on near the location that we need to go. A renowned species of alien known as the Noxius threaten the lives of many Grox living within the Northern Empire. So we'll have to watch out for them as well. However, for the most amount of time we will be going through allied territory, so we might not have any problems at all."

"That's good…" Rachel sighed, leaning back in the seat in order to get more comfortable. "So how long is it going to take for us to get to where we're going?"

"It should only take about twenty or thirty minutes if nothing distracts us along the way."

"Ugh… I might as well go to sleep on the way there… Wake me up when we get close to the planet." Not hearing anything in response, Rachel soon closed her eyes and began attempting to fall asleep.

"Rachel! Wake up!" she heard Leon urgently shout beside her. Rachel slowly opened her eyes and lazily looked over at Leon. Once she did, however, she instantly noticed that she was somehow lying on the floor of the ship.

"…What? Are we at the planet yet?" she asked, letting out a loud yawn as she began to sit back up. For some reason she felt a little sore as she did so, as if she had bumped against something while she was asleep. "And why was I lying on the floor?"

"Well if you happened to be awake all this time, you would know that the ship's engines were destroyed after an enemy ship shot at them! What's worse is that we just happened to be near a planet at the time, and because of that we just crash-landed onto the surface!"

"…Is it the planet that we're supposed to be going to?" she sleepily asked, sluggishly climbing back onto the co-pilot's seat as she attempted to focus out the front window. What she saw out the window seemed to be large chunks of deep-brown colored earth, but she wasn't so sure at the moment.

"No! It's not!" Leon snarled. "It's a planet that I actually know nothing about! And it happens to be right beside enemy territory!"

"Why did you even go near enemy territory in the first place?" Rachel asked in a somewhat annoyed tone, lazily looking over at Leon.

"I was trying to get away from the ship that was trying to kill us! I didn't know we would end up over here!"

After a few seconds of silence, Rachel spoke once again. "…How did I even sleep through all of that?" she asked with a slight laugh.

"I'm actually surprised that you never woke up…" he said, managing to smile a little. "I guess you're just a heavy sleeper. Anyway, I think we should start checking out this planet. We should either attempt to find intelligent life so that they maybe could fix my ship, or figure out how we are going to survive on this planet before someone eventually finds us."

"Well, I've always enjoyed exploring new places. So either one is fine with me. But I would think that we should at least figure out how we'll survive here first."

"Alright then, I guess we could look around for a bit and see if this planet has all the resources we need for survival." he replied as he began to stand up and walk towards the exit. "Normally I would ask if you would want to come with me, but I'm guessing that you would rather go back to sleep."

"Actually I'd rather go with you now." she said with a smile, standing up and walking over to Leon as he manually shoved the door of the ship aside. "I'm kinda curious as to what this planet looks like."

As Rachel peered out the door, what she saw in front of her was as lush, rainforest environment, feeling a lukewarm gust of air as she slowly stepped outside the ship. She could hear the strange noises of the many alien creatures that weren't visible to her at the moment. She also noticed the sounds of trickling water in the distance, turning back to Leon as she heard this.

"I can hear water somewhere around here, so we should probably be looking for wherever that is first." Before she heard his response, she noticed him walking over to her, soon passing by her as well. She began to follow alongside him after he passed by.

"I was just beginning to think the exact same thing. Now, we need to get to wherever this water is quickly and build a shelter before nighttime. I know from experience that rainforests are extremely deadly, especially during the night. Plus, you wouldn't be able to see anything."

"Yea, that wouldn't be good at all…" she replied in a somewhat uneasy tone as she gazed around at the environment around her. "Hopefully there isn't anything nearby that would want to eat us right now…"

"Don't worry Rachel. If there is, remember that we can still defend ourselves with our weapons. Any primitive life here wouldn't stand a chance against us."

"Unless the creatures hunted in packs…" she muttered to herself.

"Maybe, but we really shouldn't be focusing on that at the moment." he replied, obviously hearing what she said. "Once we build a shelter we should be able to protect ourselves from most predators, so we should be able to at least survive the night since we have more than enough resources to build one."

Right as Leon finished speaking, Rachel could see a glimpse of a small lake through the large amount of brush that was in their path. Upon forcing her way through the thick undergrowth and into a clearing around the crystal-clear lake, she noticed a small, trickling waterfall nearby, which was what she guessed that she heard earlier.

"We should probably start building a shelter against that boulder over there." she heard Leon say as he made his way through the brush. This drew her attention to a large boulder across the lake.

"Alright." Rachel simply replied, turning to face Leon. "So how should we start it off? I mean, there is many different ways to make a shelter…"

"I would think that it would be best to start out with a wooden shelter. Wood is the easiest resource to find here, so we should be able to build that type of shelter the quickest. Maybe later we can make it better, but for now we just need something to stay in for the night."

"Okay, I'll start gathering some wood." she said as she began walking over towards the forest on the other side of the lake. However, she immediately stopped after hearing a strange, loud noise a distance away in front of her. "Um… do you think you can come with me?"

"I was kind of planning on doing that anyway…" Leon chuckled as he walked over to Rachel.

After the two had finally gathered the resources they needed and finished building the shelter, Rachel took a few steps back to examine it.

"It's not very big…" she said, continuing to look at the small, twig-covered shelter. "Are you sure we are gonna both fit inside there when we go to sleep?"

"Well I wasn't exactly thinking about that at the time." Leon sighed, looking over at Rachel. "If you haven't noticed already, the sun is already beginning to set. We can make it bigger tomorrow."

"Ugh… This is going to be extremely uncomfortable…" she complained as she peered inside the shelter. The "floor" of the shelter was padded by a few, large leaves. "I've never even thought about sleeping on the ground before…"

"Don't worry, you'll probably get used to it. There is no telling how long we are going to be stranded here."

Rachel sighed at the thought of being stranded on an unknown planet, beginning to slowly crouch down and enter the shelter. After Leon entered as well, she began to feel somewhat cramped in the small area. Right after Leon closed the "door" of the shelter, she laid down on the ground and began attempting to get comfortable.

"I don't like this at all…" she sighed, feeling the hard ground beneath the leaves that covered it.

"Well, just be glad that you most likely won't get eaten by any hungry predators while you sleep." he chuckled as he sat down, facing Rachel.

"…I guess you're right about that." she said, looking up at him with a slight smile. "So anyway, which enemy territory did we end up landing near? Please don't tell me we are close to that creep Erza…"

"Actually we are somewhere near the Northwestern Empire, which is led by his ally, Emperor Sizareh."

"…His ally?" she asked in a nervous tone. "That doesn't sound good at all…"

"Well, just look on the bright side… At least we are somewhere close to the Northern Empire. Hopefully someone from either the Central or Northern Empire will realize that we haven't arrived where we are supposed to be right now and start searching for us."

"Yea… hopefully…" she sighed. "I just hope we aren't going to be forced to stay here for long… But if we are, then how are we going to survive?"

"The forest seems to be full of fruits that we can harvest, and animals that we can hunt. Plus we are living beside a lake now so it won't be a problem bathing and getting water."

"Wait, so I'm going to have to bathe in the same lake that I drink from?" she uneasily asked. "That's kinda unsanitary isn't it…?"

"We'll make sure to boil our water before we drink it. It's a good idea to do that anyway since there is no telling what type of insects and bacteria lives in there."

"…You didn't really make me feel any better by telling me that… I don't want to be bathing and feel a bug crawling up my leg… I don't really like bugs very much…"

"Just don't think about it when you're in there. I'm sure you don't want to start smelling badly again and have me start complaining about it again." he said with a smirk.

"That was annoying when you did that…" she replied, managing to smile slightly. "Anyway, whenever I do decide to bathe, please don't watch me while I do…"

"Don't worry, I won't. I was actually just about to tell you the exact same thing. I wouldn't be comfortable with you seeing me naked… Not that I have anything embarrassing to hide since I really do have a handsome body, but that would be very awkward since we pretty much just met each other…"

"Right…" Rachel giggled. "So anyway, shouldn't we be going to sleep now?"

"It's not even night yet… But I guess we could sleep early so the night can pass by quickly. It might be difficult falling asleep later tonight considering the constant noises of those animals that we keep hearing…"

"Exactly my point…" she replied as she smiled somewhat and slowly closed her eyes. She heard Leon lay down directly behind her, feeling him rubbing against her back as he attempted to get comfortable. The thought of him being close to her gave her a soothing feeling, knowing that he would be there to protect her if anything attempted to attack them. In only a few more minutes of silence, Rachel finally managed to fall asleep.


	10. Chapter 10

Rachel let out a loud yawn as she slowly began to open her eyes. She noticed a few beams of sunlight passing through some of the cracks in between the twigs, realizing that it seemed to be morning. Right as she attempted to sit up, she instantly felt weighed-down by something that was wrapped around her. Once she managed to wake up a little bit more, she noticed that it was Leon's arm that was keeping her from moving. Assuming he was asleep, she gently grabbed the lower part of his arm, attempting to move it out of her way. However, his arm merely tightened its grip around her instead.

"Leon, let me go." she said in attempt to wake him up. She managed to move around so that she could face him, knowing that she could wake him up easier that way. She then began forcefully attempting to push him away.

"Wake up already! You're squishing me and it's very uncomfortable!"

In only seconds, Leon sluggishly opened his eyes, soon realizing what was going on. "Oh, sorry Rachel…" he said, quickly releasing his grip and sitting upwards.

"…Anyway, it seems to be morning now." Rachel said as she sat up as well. "I think we should probably start searching for something to eat." Right after saying this, she pushed open the shelter door and began leisurely crawling outside. Leon followed behind shortly afterward. Rachel stretched her arms out a bit, still uncomfortable after being in such a cramped place for a while. "Ugh, why did you have to build that shelter so small? It's very uncomfortable in there."

"Well it's not like I had enough time to build a decent shelter." he replied, standing up beside her. "So anyway, where should we start searching for food? We could either hunt some animals or gather fruit."

"I think gathering fruit would be much easier, although we don't know which ones are safe to eat…"

"And does that mean we should start hunting?" he asked while drawing out his blaster.

"I guess so…" Rachel replied, pulling out her own blaster as well.

Without saying anything else, Leon cautiously made his way into the rainforest, along with Rachel following closely behind. She began listening closely to her darkened, ominous surroundings, hearing the distant sounds of creatures moving around in the brush below, and climbing around through the dense trees. She gripped tightly to her blaster, preparing for anything that could attempt to attack them.

After about ten more minutes of maneuvering through the obscure forest, Rachel noticed Leon freezing at what seemed to be the top of a short hill. Since she was lagging behind, she was unaware of what he seemed to be looking at.

"Leon, why did you stop?" she asked, carefully stepping over a somewhat small rock as she continued walking towards Leon. "Is it finally some type of animal that we could hunt?"

"…No, but come up here and look." he said, turning back to Rachel. "…How did you get so far behind anyway?"

"I got kinda tired and all of this brush slowed me down." she replied as she approached Leon's position. As she finally stepped beside him and gazed downwards into a small, nearby clearing, she was surprised as to what she was looking at. What she saw in front of her seemed to be a large, darkened arch carved out of stone that had a torch placed on both sides. It seemed like a normal structure that someone could have made, except what she noticed on the inside. Filling the space in between the arch was a purplish-red colored mass of darkened, pulsing energy.

"…What the hell is that?" Rachel asked in a somewhat shocked tone.

"I don't know, but at least we know some type of intelligent beings lives here…" Leon replied. "That couldn't have been naturally created…" After Leon began stepping forward into the clearing towards the mysterious structure, Rachel immediately began to cautiously follow behind. As they approached the arch, she could feel a chill run down her spine as if she knew something was terribly frightening about this, and whatever its purpose was.

After stepping in front of it, Rachel began speaking once again. "…What do you think this is used for?" she asked, gazing into the ominous corpus of energy. As she stepped to the side of it she watched Leon pick up a small rock on the ground and throw it through the energy. She peered behind the massive structure, not seeing the rock that Leon threw inside. "It seems to be a portal of some sort…" She looked back at Leon as she noticed him backing away.

"…I know what this is now." he said with a seemingly uneasy tone. "This structure is what we call a demon gate… I've only heard rumors about what one of these looks like, but I'm sure that's what it is…"

"…And where exactly does the portal lead to?" she asked, cautiously walking over to Leon in order to get a further distance away from the gate.

"It leads to a place that is known to Grox as Tartarus… I believe the humans who lived in this galaxy a while back called it Hell…"

"Wait, why would anyone want to create a portal to Hell? Who would even want to go there anyway?"

"Only the Demon Lords can construct these gates, so the purpose for building this is going to be deadly for anyone who might be on this planet."

"…And right now, we are currently the only ones standing directly in front of it…" she nervously replied. "…I think we should just leave before something comes out of it…"

"Yes that is probably the best idea right now…" Leon said as he began walking around the gate, making his way towards the forest behind it. Right as Rachel began following alongside him, she could have sworn she saw a threatening, horned figure in the shadows of the forest behind her, that was staring intensely at her in the corner of her eye. She stopped immediately and quickly turned towards where she saw the being, only to see that it was no longer there.

"Rachel, what is it?" Leon asked as he briefly stopped and looked back at Rachel.

"Sorry… I thought I saw someone watching us…" she sighed, turning back to Leon. "I guess being around that portal started to make me paranoid or something…"

Right as Leon turned back around and continued walking towards the forest, Rachel began to feel extremely lightheaded, seeing the environment beginning to blur around her. Only after a few seconds, she immediately stopped walking and collapsed to the damp forest floor. As her vision began slowly turning back to normal, she gazed in the direction that Leon was walking to see if she could see him. However, he was nowhere in sight. Focusing back on herself, she noticed that a sickly, dark aura was now radiating off of her body, which nearly caused her to panic. She attempted to call Leon for help, however she strangely was unable to speak. It was as if something was preventing her from doing so. Then, right in front of her, she noticed a large buildup of dark energy began to form in front of her. As the energy faded, she once again saw the mysterious horned figure in its place. As she saw the darkened figure beginning to slowly approach her, she immediately made an effort to stand up so she could run away from this creature. However, she soon realized that she could no longer move.

"Get away from me!" she attempted to shout. But instead her voice merely continued to remain silent. Right as the figure stopped in front of her, its darkened appearance seemed to fade away, revealing its true form. The creature appeared to be a heavily armored male Grox. A few strands of his jet-black mane could be seen coming out from under his horned helmet. His intense eyes appeared to be the same as any regular Omega Grox. However, she knew that he couldn't be one of them.

"Hello Rachel." the Grox said with a malicious grin, having a slight demonic tone in his voice. Rachel struggled to ask him how he knew who she was, but still she couldn't speak. "I know that you are wondering what is happening right now, so allow me to explain in the simplest way possible." After saying this, the Grox kneeled down next to her. "I bet you've noticed the dark energy that is now coursing through your body. I caused that to happen simply to watch you suffer. Now, you better listen closely to what I have to say. You and that Grox will NOT interfere with my plans. If you even attempt to do so, both of your souls will become mine."

After the Grox stood back up and turned around, beginning to walk away from the area, Rachel noticed that the strange aura was no longer around her. She was going to ask the Grox who he was, but instead she decided to remain silent since she didn't want him to stay around her any longer.

Only seconds after Rachel saw the ominous Grox vanish in a black cloud of smoke, her vision instantly began to blur almost to where she couldn't see at all. Right as her vision refocused, she gradually noticed Leon kneeled down beside her, shaking her shoulder as if he was trying to wake her up.

"…Who was that guy Leon?" Rachel asked after Leon seemed to have realized that she was awake.

"…What are you talking about?" Leon asked in a confused tone. "No one else has been here… You have been unconscious the entire time anyway so how would you know?"

"Oh… I guess I must have been imagining that or something." she sighed. After her eyes managed to focus off Leon for a few seconds, she immediately realized that they seemed to be inside what seemed to be a small, wooden structure, yet much larger than the one they stayed in the night before. She leisurely sat up and looked around some more, noticing that she seemed to be on a simple bed that was padded with a large amount of exotic leaves. "I see that you worked on our shelter while I was unconscious…"

"Actually I didn't make this…" Leon replied, standing up. "I managed to find a sentient species of canines known as the Ke'zuka that live on this planet. Well, actually they found us but at least we know there is intelligent life here."

"Well that's good I guess… Anyway, what should we do next?"

Before Leon could reply, a tall, bipedal, wolf-like creature abruptly entered the room. As Rachel moved her gaze towards the creature, she noticed that it seemed to have strange, white-colored markings painted on its thick, gray fur. She also noticed that it was clothed in lightweight armor and cloth.

"Ky'le tsuro yhyka!" it said in an urgent tone. Rachel looked at the canine with a strange expression, soon shifting her gaze back to Leon.

"Um… what did he just say?" she asked him, noticeably confused.

"I'm not really sure, but that's why I have this…" he replied, pulling a device off of his belt. "I knew I would need this eventually. It's a translator. Whenever one of them speaks, this device translates it into English. And whenever we speak it will translate it into whatever language they use." He soon pressed a few buttons on the device and looked at the creature. "Could you repeat that?"

The creature's response was nearly the same, but after a few seconds it sounded out of the device, now in English. "The shadow was seen again!" he shouted.

Rachel remained confused, even though what he said was translated. "…Shadow?" she asked.

Leon looked over at Rachel. "A few of the hunters said they saw a creature made of darkness. They say that it has attacked and killed off four in their group, and has been causing a lot of problems around here."

"…What if it's a demon?" she asked. "You know from the portal? Maybe that's the one who I encountered earlier…"

"I don't know, but we are going to help them with their problem. I agreed to help them, and that's the only reason why they are letting us stay here."

"…So we are seriously about to go and attempt to kill a creature made of darkness? How is that even possible?"

"We'll find a way to defeat it. It just might be… difficult." Leon soon began walking out of the structure, soon stopping at the exit and looking back at Rachel. "Well come on, you're not going to stay here the entire time."

Rachel quickly stood up and walked towards Leon as he and the Ke'zuka exited outside.

"Is the creature anywhere nearby?" he asked, looking at the Ke'zuka as they walked.

"No, it killed a few of our hunters who were in the wastelands and then ran back towards the mountains." the canine replied.

"So I'm guessing it most likely lives somewhere in the mountains. We'll go out there and check sometime soon."

Rachel moaned in annoyance after hearing what he said. "I'm hungry…"

"Oh, you haven't eaten yet…" Leon said, looking at Rachel. "Well then we'll go after you get something to eat."

The Ke'zuka soon looked over at Rachel. "Since our hunters were distracted from their hunt, you won't be getting meat anytime soon. But there is plenty of fruit if you are able to eat it."

"You can eat while we look for the creature." Leon said, still focused on Rachel. "We need to kill it as soon as possible." He soon looked over at the canine. "We also need some of your people to help us to kill it. I don't think we can defeat it alone."

"I figured you would say that." he replied. "You will need about two medics, five warriors, and a guide. Since I am good at navigation, I can lead you to the mountains." He soon stopped and turned back to Leon and Rachel, as they stopped as well. "Stay here while I recruit the others."

As the Ke'zuka began to walk away, Rachel began to complain again. "…Can't we go and get some fruit before we leave? I'm really hungry…"

"Can't you just wait?" Leon sighed, moving his gaze over to Rachel. "Besides, he told us to stay here. It probably won't take very long."

"I hope so…" she replied. "Because I need food soon… Or something to drink… I don't know, I just need something. Anyway, how long do you think it will take to get to the mountains?"

Right after she said this, the Ke'zuka and seven others approached them from behind. "It will take a few days." he replied. "The mountains are far from the village."

As Rachel and Leon turned around, Rachel noticed that the canine was holding a medium-sized wooden bowl filled with a few exotic fruits and water.

"I brought this for you since you said you were hungry." he said, holding the bowl out to Rachel. She took the bowl from him, immediately picking up one of the fruits and taking a bite out of it.

"Alright, now before we go, let us introduce ourselves." the Ke'zuka said. "I am Kelnka. The warriors' names are Teyik, Anur, Ki'nā, Tsuen, and Ulkir. The two medics are Ki'lā and Adelu."

Rachel looked over at Leon and whispered in his ear. "I'm gonna have problems remembering all of those names…" After saying this she continued to munch on the fruits.

Leon seemed to ignore her, still focused on Kelnka. "Alright. Anyway, lead the way."

Kelnka said nothing and began walking towards the forest, along with the seven others as well. Rachel and Leon soon started following behind.

"Rachel, finish eating soon before some type of predator shows up." Leon said, looking at her. "I don't want you to be defenseless."

"Don't worry I'm almost done." she replied, finishing up the fruit. She then began to drink the water that was in the bowl as well, tossing it aside after she drank the remainder of it.

After they stepped into the dense forest, Kelnka began to speak. "First, we are going to be travelling through the forest. There aren't many predators here, but they are active at night. So we'll need to get out of here before nightfall. Next we will be entering into the wetlands. It is very dangerous there, and we'll need to be careful. It is also easy to get lost there. After that we'll be crossing over a river into another forest. It's extremely dark there, even during the daytime, so it's very dangerous. Poisonous plants and insects fill the place, and it's extremely mountainous there as well. After a while we will reach the wastelands. That place isn't filled with predators like the others, but there are a few dangerous ones. It's also extremely hot as well, having almost no plants or water. So we will need to prepare before we go there."

"Um… question." Rachel interrupted. "If the wastelands are so dangerous then why were your hunters out there?"

"Certain animal species are important to our tribe." he replied. "Anyway, once we go through that, we will enter the mountains. It's similar to the forest before the wastelands in the beginning, but deeper into the mountains is more like the wastelands, except extremely rocky. And like those two places, it's extremely dangerous. Plants and animals are unable to survive there because of the intense heat. The deeper you go into the mountains, the hotter it gets. That's because it's extremely volcanic."

"I don't know how we are going to survive this…" Rachel whispered in Leon's ear. "Especially since he described almost every place as extremely dangerous…"

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll survive." Leon whispered back. "…I really hope I'm right about that…"

"Yeah, because after we get passed all this stuff, we are going to have to fight a demon and hopefully kill it before it kills us… By the way, where are we going to be sleeping? Some of those places don't seem safe enough to spend the night in…"

"Well I guess we are going to be building shelters along the way. We just have to trust these people to keep us alive. Since the have obviously explored these places before, they probably know how to survive anywhere around here."

"That's good… I hope they are going to give us time to rest occasionally… I'm not use to walking far for so long…"

"I'm sure they will." Leon replied, laughing slightly. "That is if you complain enough."

"That won't be very hard." Rachel laughed. "I'm an expert at complaining."

"That's always good… I think. By the way, you might want to watch out for that bu-"

Right before Leon could finish the sentence, Rachel walked into an extremely tall, thick bush, tripping and falling down. A somewhat deep tunnel was below it, in which she fell in as well. Only the bottoms of her feet were visible outside the bush.

"…ouch…" Rachel groaned. As she slowly attempted to stand back up, she could hear the Ke'zuka laughing and talking amongst themselves nearby. She guessed they were talking about her. "Hey… this isn't funny at all…" she said with a slight laugh.

"…Rachel, are you alright?" she heard Kelnka ask. "You seem to be very deep in that bush…"

"That's because it's not just a bush…" she sighed. "There is a tunnel under here too…"

"Um… that's not good…" he replied. "Tunnels don't just appear out of nowhere here, and a certain species of animal digs tunnels under bushes…"

"Well I don't see anything down here… But then I can't see very good in the dark… Anyway can someone pull me out? I don't want to stay down here any longer…"

"I'll pull you out." she heard Leon reply. She soon felt him grasp onto her ankles, attempting to pull her out.

Right as she began to feel herself being pulled out of the tunnel, she heard something in front of her growling deeply. "Um… Could you please hurry? I hear something down here…" After saying this, she felt something slimy lick across her face. "AH! Something just licked me! Hurry up before it eats my face!" She began to thrash around wildly in panic, attempting to help push her way out of the tunnel as well.

"I'm trying to hurry!" Leon shouted, continuing to pull her out.

After a few more seconds, Rachel shot up out of the tunnel and exited the bush, running over Leon and knocking him over with her force by accident. "That was terrifying…" she said, looking down at Leon as she lay somewhat comfortably on top of him.

"If you thought that was terrifying, wait until you get passed this forest." Kelnka replied. "That was nothing compared to what is in the other places we will be going. That creature you were near wasn't even carnivorous."

"That's not good…" Rachel sighed. "I'm probably gonna be hiding the entire time…"

"…Rachel, can you please get off of me?" Leon asked, interrupting their conversation.

"Oh, sorry…" she replied, slowly standing back up. "Well you were comfy while it lasted. Why didn't you say anything earlier?"

"I thought you would have stood back up sooner…" he chuckled as he got back up.

After Rachel turned back towards the Ke'zuka, she noticed them now beginning to walk away.

"I guess they aren't gonna wait on us…" Rachel whispered.

"Well we do need to get far enough before it gets dark." Leon whispered back. "We should be following them you know."

"Right…" she laughed slightly. Soon enough, they began to follow behind the group once again.


	11. Chapter 11

_Warning: Mild sexual content_

* * *

><p>About an hour later, Rachel was exhausted, sluggishly trudging behind the group as they clambered up a mass of bushy terrain with a higher elevation than the terrain they already crossed. She could feel the sweat dripping off her face, as well as the dull pain from her aching legs.<p>

"Please… Let me rest…" she said with a deep sigh, halting halfway up the hill and attempting to breathe in more of the fresh, lukewarm air. "I don't think I can continue like this any longer…"

The group stopped, looking back at Rachel so she wasn't left behind. Leon soon began to walk back over to her.

"I guess you can rest." he replied, stopping beside her. "Although, try to rest quickly. We need to get as far as we can before night."

Without a response, Rachel simply moved over to a small clearing and lay down on her back against the rough earth beneath her.

"…Um, you are going to just lay down there?" Leon asked, gazing down at her.

"Yea… it's comfortable…" she replied, slightly looking at him. "And it's not like there is any other place that is better to lie down on…"

Leon sighed, slowly walking over to where Rachel was and lying down beside her as well.

After he lay, Rachel could hear nearby footsteps crunching through the earth somewhere behind her. She assumed it was the rest of the group moving back over to them.

"While you two are resting, we are going to hunt." one of the warriors spoke.

After hearing the sounds of the warriors walking away, she soon noticed Kelnka's voice behind her.

"And I'm going to attempt to find a water source to build a shelter next to." he said with a slightly annoyed tone. "It's not very close to nightfall now. Anyway, try not to move. Although if you do, make sure to take the healers with you."

Once he walked away, Rachel turned her gaze toward Leon. "And why does he think that we would want to move?" she said with a slight smile.

"Well, we might want to move sometime soon." he replied, gazing over at her as well.

"I don't know why… I'm still really tired. I'm not gonna be getting up from this spot for a while."

"I'm sure that if you had a bit more exercise you would be able to last longer without tiring. You just need to go out on a few more missions."

"Maybe, but I don't know. We'll just have to see I guess." she said with a slight grin. "For now, I think I'm gonna take a nap before I have to move again." Without waiting for a response from Leon, she simply closed her eyes and began attempting to sleep.

After about ten more minutes of lying on the ground, Rachel's relaxation was interrupted after hearing Leon getting up beside her. She opened her eyes and sleepily looked up at him. After opening her eyes, she instantly noticed that the light from the sun was dimmer than before. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"Well if you had been paying attention, Kelnka returned to tell us that he finished building the shelter." Leon replied. "Also, a rainstorm is approaching and I don't think we want to stay out here and get rained on."

"Ugh, how long did I sleep?" she asked, slowly standing back up. She began to feel a few light drops of tepid rain sprinkle against her skin.

"Only ten minutes. Anyway, we should be getting to the shelter before we get rained on."

Rachel began to follow alongside Leon after he began to walk up the hill. After reaching the top, they reentered the brush-covered forest once again. She could hear the sounds of the rain sprinkling against the leaves, as well as the eerie noise from a few gusts of wind as the storm's strength continued to increase. Every few seconds she could feel the drops of rain drip on her skin that managed to slip through the dense canopy of the forest.

"…Where did those wolves go?" she asked, looking over at Leon as they walked.

"They are somewhere ahead of us at the shelter." he replied. "Kelnka told me the directions before he went back there. By the way, I almost forgot to tell you that he mentioned the warriors not returning yet. So we won't be getting anything to eat for now, unless we can find some fruit nearby."

"I wonder what's taking them so long… It shouldn't take very long to kill something and bring it back."

"Well maybe they are just having troubles with finding something. They will probably be back soon."

"I hope so… I only got to eat that bowl of fruits today." After pausing for a few seconds, she soon spoke once again. "By the way, how did night come so quickly? The daytime only felt like it lasted a few hours long."

"Here, it doesn't take very long for the planet to rotate, so it shortens the length of the daytime. You'll get used to it eventually."

"I guess that means it's gonna take a while to get to the mountains…" she muttered. "Especially if we only walked for about an hour already…"

"Well, it was already close to sunset when we started walking. You were unconscious earlier for almost the entire day…"

"Oh, I almost forgot about that… So that means we'll be able to travel a lot farther tomorrow I guess."

"Only if you don't complain about walking and decide to rest like you did earlier." he said with a smirk.

"I'll try to walk farther than today, but I'm not gonna make any promises… I can't walk as far as you and those wolves can."

"Well if you get tired next time maybe someone will have to carry you." he replied, laughing slightly.

"Maybe so." she said, laughing as well in response.

Right after saying this, the wind began to grow stronger as it blew through the forest, and the sprinkling of the rain hit the trees harder and faster. Rachel quickly reached toward a short, tree-like plant, plucking off one of its large leaves and holding it over her head as they continued on to the shelter.

"We need to get to that shelter fast…" she said, looking at Leon, beginning to walk at a faster pace. "I hate getting rained on…"

Eventually the two came across a somewhat large, poorly-made shelter built from tree limbs, twigs, vines, and leaves. Beside it was a small lake, seeming to be dark and murky due to the fact that it was now nighttime. Rachel quickly threw the leaf aside and bolted inside the structure. She first noticed that Kelnka and the two healers were already inside, appearing to be asleep, curled up in random places inside the shelter on the ground that was padded with leaves. Also after she entered, she noticed drops of rain leaking through the roof.

She turned her gaze over to Leon after hearing him walk inside, noticing that he seemed to be almost soaking wet. "…You know, being a canine and all, please tell me you don't stink after getting wet…" she muttered in a slightly annoyed tone.

"Don't worry, that doesn't happen to my species." he replied with a laugh, finding an empty spot and sitting down. "Anyway, we should probably be going to sleep now."

"I don't know how…" she said, glancing up at the roof as the drops of rain slipped through. "This is gonna be difficult for me…"

"Well, you managed to stay asleep when my ship crashed on this planet, so I'm sure it will be easier than you think."

"That was after I had been asleep though…" she replied as she walked over to Leon, sitting next to him. "But I guess I can at least try to sleep. I don't want to be tired in the morning."

"Yes, we really don't want that…" he smirked, lying down against the leaf-covered surface. "Now, let's sleep already."

Rachel soon laid down on the ground, attempting to ignore the drops of rain that managed to drip on her. After she closed her eyes, a few minutes later she fell asleep.

The next morning as Rachel began waking up, she began to notice a terrible stench that filled the air around her. She slowly opened her eyes, surprised to see that much of the shelter was torn down, most likely because of the storm last night. As she sat up, she began to look around, noticing that everyone was still in the same places that they had been in, still asleep. The strange stench was beginning to bother her, which was when she thought of something after looking at the Ke'zuka. She noticed that their fur was damp, which made her think that the smell was coming from them.

"Eww… Wet dog smell…" Rachel whispered in complaint. She carefully stood up and slowly began walking in the direction of the lake, not wanting to wake anyone up just yet. "I'm definitely gonna need to bathe before Leon starts complaining about me stinking. That stench is probably stuck to me now…" After quickly removing every bit of her uniform, she simply placed it on the edge of the lake and stepped inside the water, beginning to bathe. "Hopefully I can finish before they wake up…"

After what seemed to be five minutes later, Rachel began to notice something moving out of the corner of her eye that was close to the shelter. She was almost finished bathing, so she didn't worry too much about whatever it was. However, whenever it seemed to be staring at her, that's when she began to take notice. She quickly turned her head over to what was watching her, only to see that it was Leon. She speedily sank down into the lake, leaving only her head above water. Her face flushed red with embarrassment. "Hey, can I have some privacy here?" she asked him in an annoyed, yet slightly nervous tone.

Leon quickly turned his head away from her. "Um yes, sorry about that…" he replied, obviously nervous as well. "It was just… distracting…"

"That's not a good enough excuse to be staring at me while I'm taking a bath…"

After she managed to focus off Leon, her gaze soon turned to what was now beside him, now seeing all three of the Ke'zuka staring intensely at her.

"…Okay that's enough! All three of you look away and let me finish my bath! It's all your faults for rubbing your wet dog smell off on me in the first place!"

Even though she said this, the Ke'zuka only continued to stare at her, almost as if they didn't even hear a word that she said.

"Oh, sorry Rachel, I forgot to turn the translator back on…" she heard Leon reply. After a few seconds, he continued. "Alright, it's on now…"

"All three of you, stop staring at me." she said, still glaring at the Ke'zuka. In response, they soon looked away.

"Sorry, Rachel…" Kelnka replied, sounding somewhat uneasy. "Anyway, while you are busy with that, I'm going to see if I can find the warriors… I noticed they hadn't returned still…" After saying this, he stood up and began to walk away, soon disappearing into the dense forest. Only a few seconds later, the two healers stood up and quickly began to follow behind as well.

Rachel sighed in relief, soon beginning to continue her bath after getting a bit more relaxed. "You know, you might need to take a bath too." she said to Leon. "You probably have that wet dog smell too."

"Yes, you are probably right…" he sighed. "I can still smell it around here."

A few seconds later, Rachel heard him beginning to walk to the lake, stopping somewhere a distance away from her. As she turned her head over to him to see what he was doing, she noticed that he was beginning to remove his uniform. She quickly turned her head away, embarrassed yet again. "You are seriously going to do that while I'm still in here?" she complained, sinking deeper into the water. "Why can't you wait until I'm finished?"

"Well, since we have a limited amount of daytime, this seems to be the quickest way." he replied. "If I waited, then we would have less time after I finished."

"Fine…" she uneasily replied as she heard him beginning to enter the water. "Just try to stay far away from me…"

"Don't worry, I will." he replied with a slight laugh. "I know how to respect other's privacy."

"I don't really think so…" she muttered to herself as she continued to bathe once again.

About a minute later as she was about to finish up, out of the corner of her eye she noticed the armored Grox demon appear in the dense forest a distance in front of her, seeing his terrifying glowing eyes staring directly at her. She quickly sank down into the water yet again. "Please not again…" she whispered, knowing that he could end up forcing her into unconsciousness again like the last time.

"What's wrong?" she heard Leon ask somewhere behind her.

She turned her head in his direction, still keeping the majority of her body underwater. "The demon is nearby… I just saw him…" Right as she turned her head to the direction that she expected the demon to be in, she instantly realized that he was gone. However, she soon began to notice the familiar, sickly aura began to surround her body yet again, painfully coursing through her. She immediately collapsed in the water after not being able to handle the intense pain any longer. However, she was now completely submerged under the water. She hoped Leon would attempt to save her, but as the seconds passed she began to think that he had somehow disappeared like what happened during the demon's first attack. As she began gradually running out of air, she attempted to move herself back to the surface. However, the energy around her seemed to pin her in place. She knew that the demon was going to simply drown her, remembering what he had said the first time.

Right as she gave up, she felt an icy, metallic hand grasp around her neck, swiftly lifting her out of the water and tossing her back on the surface. She gasped for air, relieved that she was able to breathe yet again. However, her relief disappeared once she saw who saved her, seeing the malicious Grox demon glaring intensely at her.

"I thought I told you to not interfere with my plans." the demon growled, continuing to stare angrily at her. "I'm sure that since you decided to disobey my orders, you probably forgot all about the punishment."

"I didn't forget…" Rachel replied, glaring back at the demon. "I'm guessing since we are going after the shadow creature, that thing has something to do with your plans?"

"Oh, so you've figured it out." he smirked. "At least part of it. Anyway, I believe it is time for your punishment. I'm not going to claim your soul yet, but just think of this as a warning."

"…What are you going to do to me? Torture I guess?"

"Yes, there will be torture…" he replied with a malevolent grin, kneeling down beside her. "But probably not what you are thinking about. You see, you just happen to have a lack of armor on your body… That makes it much easier for me to use a simple form of torture on you…" Rachel watched as he extended his clawed hand out to her, beginning to stroke the center of her chest somewhat gently. "And who knows, you might actually enjoy this…"

"…You better not even try…" she replied, now obviously uneasy about the situation.

"There's nothing you can do about it." the demon grinned as he continued to stroke her. He slowly moved his head down to her neck, giving her a light kiss. "There is no escape." he whispered to her. "You are mine now."

Rachel instantly attempted to shove the demon back, but the dark energy surrounding her continued to keep her pinned in place. "Let me go!" she shouted. "You can't do this to me!" After noticing that he seemed to ignore her and continue what he was doing, she knew that she had to surrender. She closed her eyes tightly in attempt to block out everything that he was doing to her.

After what seemed to be many hours later, the demon finally managed to finish. She slowly opened her eyes once again, feeling the aching pain that he caused her to have. Once she managed to glare weakly at the demon, he vanished into thick, black smoke. The sickly aura vanished, and her vision soon began to blur to where she could see nothing at all.

As her vision began to become clear yet again, she immediately noticed that she was lying inside what seemed to be the shelter, yet now it was obviously rebuilt. The pain from before had disappeared, although she still felt weakened. She looked around slightly, noticing the three Ke'zuka curled up in different places around the shelter. This made her assume it was either close to nighttime or daytime, since she saw a few beams of light passing through the many cracks in the shelter's roof.

After she managed to sit up, she instantly realized that her uniform was back on. She sighed in relief, even though she was a bit embarrassed knowing that someone would have to see her naked in order to do that, but she didn't worry about that much. What happened before was far worse than that for the minor embarrassment to bother her. She gazed around the shelter in search of Leon, yet he was nowhere in sight. Thinking that he could be somewhere outside, she got up and exited the shelter.

She shifted her head over towards the lake after exiting, soon turning her focus towards Leon, who was sitting at the lake's edge facing away from her. She was somewhat relieved once she noticed that his uniform was back on, but something didn't seem right about him. He seemed to have his face cupped in his hands, slumping over slightly. To her, this gave her the impression that he was in a depressed mood, yet she was unsure of why.

Once she decided to walk over to him, she stopped closely behind him and gazed downwards at him. "Leon, what's wrong?" she calmly asked.

Leon's ears immediately perked up, and he swiftly turned around, standing up and hugging Rachel tightly. "I thought you were dead, Rachel… You have been unconscious for so long…"

"It happened again… The demon… He caused that to happen…"

"Well at least you are still alive…" he replied, releasing his grip from around her.

"…You know, I found out that the shadow creature has something to do with the demon's plans." she said. "I don't know what it's going to be used for though…"

"I'm sure we'll figure that out once we find out where that creature is. Anyway, it's almost morning now so we should probably start moving again." As he began to leisurely walking towards the shelter, Rachel followed alongside him, now in a somewhat uneasy mood.

"…Actually, I think we should just turn back and leave them to deal with the creature… I don't like this anymore…"

"We can't just leave them…" Leon replied, stopping and looking at Rachel.

"Well you don't know what I just went through…" she replied, having a slight melancholy tone in her voice, stopping and looking at Leon as well. "This is the second time he's caused me to go unconscious, and this time it was much worse than the first time… It's just going to continue until he eventually kills us both… He threatened to take our souls away…"

"…What did he do to you?" he asked, seemingly ignoring everything after she mentioned the second time of unconsciousness being worse than the one before.

"…I don't know if I want to talk about it…" she sighed, slowly turning her gaze away from Leon.

"Please just tell me…" he replied, obviously concerned about what happened. "Whatever he did to you, I'll make sure he suffers…"

After a few seconds of silence, she soon spoke. "He… he raped me…" she said in an almost inaudible voice. "…It was terrible… He said that was meant to be a warning… That's how I know that if we continue on and try to ruin his plans, this will only get worse…"

"…I'm sorry for mentioning that, Rachel…" he paused for a few seconds. "…You should go back to the village while I go find that demon… I'll kill him for you."

"But then, what if he does the same to you?" she replied in a sterner tone. "He's going to kill you before you even get there… I don't want you to die…"

"…Someone has to help these people. They can't fight the demon as well as I could. Just trust me, I'll defeat him."

As he began walking to the shelter, Rachel began to feel tears forming in her eyes. "Leon… Please don't go…"

He immediately stopped walking and turned his head in her direction. "I'm sorry, but I have to… Just go back to the village and you'll be safe from harm." He looked away from her and began walking again.

She sighed as she looked away from him, feeling a few tears rolling down her face. Behind her, she heard Leon telling the Ke'zuka that she was going back to the village. Only a few minutes later, she could hear the sounds of the group's footsteps walking, gradually fading away every second. She began to trudge away from them, going back towards the village.

As she walked, she began to think about what had just happened. For some reason, she just knew that Leon wasn't going to survive the mission. She knew that since he was a general, then he must have survived through a lot before. But for some reason this seemed different. She didn't think that he would be able to defeat a powerful demon.

After what seemed to be an hour of walking, she still didn't seem anywhere near the village. She was confused, not recognizing anything in the environment from earlier. "Great… now I'm lost…" she muttered to herself. "Guess his plan of keeping me safe isn't really going to work…"

She soon exited from the forest, now entering what seemed to be vast, rolling plains. The lukewarm breeze blew the lengthy, bright green grass as she stepped through it. No trees were in sight, however a large mass of rock was visible in the near distance. As she began approaching the piece of stone, she noticed a dark and lustrous vein of metal that reflected the sun's light off part of the surface. Not knowing of anything better to do, she decided to go investigate.

Once she finally approached the strange mass of rock, she noticed a few smaller chunks of the metal sticking out of the ground or just lying across the surface nearby. She bent down beneath the tall, flowing grass and picked up one of the smaller, seemingly broken off pieces of the metal. She ran her fingers across the smooth surface, realizing that it surprisingly was warm to the touch. "That's interesting I guess…" she said as she continued examining the object. She simply slipped the metal in her pocket, deciding to keep it for some reason.

Soon after, she moved around and laid her back against the rock, sitting down against it in attempt to rest. Walking for so long had made her tired, and the bright sun wasn't helping her any. She knew that she should probably move back towards the forest, but for now she believed this was a safer place to rest, since she pretty much would be invisible to anything that would want to eat her because of the tall grass.

About a few minutes after resting, she heard the footsteps of something approaching behind the rock. She cautiously got to her feet, keeping herself bent down as she peaked around the rock through the grass. She crawled around close to the ground for a bit until she finally noticed what she was hearing. What she saw was a familiar Omega Grox approaching the rock, seeming to be holding a small, cylindrical device in one of his clawed hands.

She quickly moved back behind the rock, hoping that he didn't see her. "…Mutare?" she whispered to herself. "…That is so random… Why is he here?" Right after saying this, she heard his footsteps getting closer to her, soon noticing him in the corner of her eye. She quickly looked up at him, pulling out her blaster since she knew she would have to defend herself.

"Why are you here?" he asked her, glaring down at her. He didn't seem threatened, even after he glanced at the blaster she was holding.

"I should be asking you the same thing." she replied, glaring at him as well. "Leon's ship crashed on this planet and we have nowhere to go."

"And where is that waste of red fur now?" he asked, gazing around at the environment around him. "I don't seem to see him anywhere."

"…He went to go help the people who live here kill a demon and a shadow creature." she sighed. "I'm afraid he's not going to return…"

"If you're talking about the demon who brought me here, he probably won't." he replied, focusing back on her.

"Why would that demon want you here anyway?" she asked, now confused. "I wouldn't think a demon would need an assimilator to help it…"

"He is forcing me to build a biomechanical suit of armor similar to Lord Omega's. He's planning on allowing what you call the shadow creature to fuse itself inside it. The shadow is simply the soul of someone who was killed many years ago."

"Who exactly is that? Whoever it is, it must be someone important… Either that or just really evil…"

"It's unfortunately the former Emperor of the first Grox Empire, Groc." he said with a slight growl. "Groc is his apprentice, and now he wants him alive for some type of plan to take control over the galaxy again."

"…I've heard about him… Why would you help that demon resurrect him?"

"It's not like I have a choice." he replied, glaring at Rachel. "He threatened to torture me for eternity if I refused to help him."

"Oh… Well couldn't you just trick him or something? You know, like tell him you're finished with the armor, but have something important missing from inside it? That seems like a good idea to me…"

"Yes, I was planning on something like that. I really don't want that Emperor to return. Anyway, I'm going to be doing what I came here for. Can you step away from the metal?"

"Sure…" she replied, standing up and backing away from the mass of rock. She watched him as he pressed a button on the cylinder, causing a small, red beam of energy to come out of it, pressing it against the rock. He seemed to be cutting a large chunk of the metal out of the rock.

After he finished, he deactivated the device and caused it to spilt into tiny pieces of nanites, which disappeared inside his hand. He quickly pulled the chunk of metal out of the rock, beginning to carry it away.

Rachel simply stood there watching him leave, but she soon began to think of an idea. She knew that she wouldn't be able to survive on her own. "…Um, do you think I could follow you maybe?" she asked, sounding slightly nervous.

"Yeah, sure." he replied, continuing to walk. "But why would you trust me anyway?"

"Because I'm lost and I don't have any other choice." she said, beginning to walk alongside him. "I can't survive out here on my own…"

"Just try not to slow me down or anything." he growled. "And whenever we get to the base, I suggest you hide so Lord Zeku doesn't see you."

"…Zeku?" she asked, confused yet again.

"The demon…" he sighed in an annoyed tone. "He's a very powerful Demon Lord who you probably wouldn't want to mess with."

"Oh… Well anyway, I think that's all the questions I have for now. Except I do have to warn you that I can't walk for as long as you probably can, so I'll need to rest eventually.

Mutare said nothing in response, simply continuing to walk.


	12. Chapter 12

"…How long are we going to be walking through these plains?" Rachel asked in a somewhat annoyed tone about thirty minutes later, following Mutare up one of the many hills as a strong gust of air blew against her.

"I thought you said you were going to stop asking questions…" Mutare sighed as he continued to walk.

"Just because I say something doesn't mean it's going to be true… Anyway, there's nothing to look at and it's making me extremely bored."

"We should be near the wetlands soon so you'll have many things to look at there."

"Well that's good to know…" she replied in a seemingly sarcastic tone, stepping around a large chunk of stone that was in her way.

A few more minutes later after they scaled up the hill, they eventually reached a large, flat area of land, covered in dense, vine-covered trees and random pools of dark, murky water. Many different shrubs and other types of plants grew from the mud-covered earth here, which to Rachel seemed as if they would cause a few problems while navigating through this area of land.

"This is a lot worse than I thought it would be…" Rachel said, peering through the dense brush. After stepping around one of the strange, tall plants, a lengthy, snake-like lizard slithered across the damp, muddy earth from under the plant and slipped into the nearest pool of water. She soon looked behind her to check if Mutare was following behind, seeing that he was walking behind her. "…How did you get through all of this anyway?" As she continued to step forward, she could feel one of her feet sluggishly sinking down in a puddle of mud. She turned her gaze to her foot, pulling it out and leaping over to a patch of grass that was on the other side of it.

"Well unlike you, I am able to navigate through certain environments a lot easier." he replied, stepping over the mud to follow Rachel. "The armor I'm wearing helps a lot. But if you think that this will be annoying to get through, then you're really going to hate the forest after this."

"For now, I'd rather not focus on that…" she replied as she continued walking, stepping through a medium-sized shrub pushing some thick vines aside. A few more of the lizards she saw before scurried out from under the shrub and away from her. "…By the way, are there any dangerous animals in here?"

"There are a few. However, we won't have to worry about them until the night. Most of the predators here are nocturnal."

"So we're definitely going to need to get out of here before then…"

"Actually I don't think we can…" he said with a sigh. "It's already noon right now, and these wetlands go on for many more miles."

"…um, so how exactly are we going to survive the night?" she nervously asked, stepping through a small pool of murky water. Yet again, she noticed one of the same lizards appear above the water's surface, slithering through the water to avoid her. "I know what we're probably going to end up eating… There seem to be tons of those lizards here…"

"To survive here, we are going to need to find a place with water and tall, thick trees. We will have to spend the night in one of those trees to avoid the predators below."

"That is not going to be comfortable at all…" she sighed. "Why can't we just make a shelter on the ground?"

"Because one of the predators is extremely intelligent and would probably end up eating us while we are sleeping, even if we're in a shelter. All they would have to do is tear down the shelter to get to us."

"Oh… Well are there any predators in the trees?"

"There is none that I know of. I had to sleep in a tree the first time I came through here, and nothing attacked me."

"That's good I guess…" she replied, stepping over a log and stopping there. "Anyway, can we please rest? I'm getting really tired now…"

"You guess?" Mutare he said with a growl, stepping over the log and stopping beside her. He seemed to completely ignore what she said after.

"Well you aren't exactly a friend so I really don't think I would care if you died…"

"Hey, if it wasn't for me, you would probably be dead now." he sternly replied, quickly moving his ears back against the sides of his head.

"…I know, but I'm still thinking about what you tried to do me and Leon the first time we met." she replied in a nervous tone, backing away slightly from him. "…And the fact that you have either killed or assimilated probably thousands of innocent aliens."

"Well you shouldn't be focusing on that right now." he growled. "Because I could just leave you here to die whenever I want."

"Look I'm really sorry but I don't even know why you're helping me anyway…"

"I'm only helping you because I haven't known you very long." he said, sounding as if he was calming down a little. His ears began slowly returning to their normal position as well. "But if it was Leon who got left behind, I would have killed him right after I noticed him."

"Fine…" she sighed. "Anyway, can I please rest now? You kinda ignored me the first time I mentioned it…"

"Yes, go ahead and rest." he replied. "I'm starting to get tired of carrying this piece of metal anyway."

"Thank you…" she sighed, immediately stopping and sitting down on the log behind her. She watched as Mutare placed the chunk of metal beside him, sitting down on the log as well. "…How do you get tired anyway? Aren't you like mostly robotic?"

"This is only armor." he replied, focusing on Rachel. "I am the only scientist in my faction who can make the biomechanical implants and I can't upgrade myself."

"Oh…" she said. After pausing for a few seconds, she soon spoke again. "I really wish Leon was here… I'm so worried about what that demon might do to him if he continues on…"

"Zeku is a very sadistic demon, so you better hope he decides to go back. He doesn't like it when people disobey his orders."

"Yeah… I know…" she sighed. "I figured that out before Leon told me to stay behind…"

"So what did he do to you exactly?" he asked with a slight growl in his voice. "It must have tortured you badly for your ally to make you go back."

"…He did something very bad to me…" she replied, slowly turning her gaze to the ground. "As a warning, he forced me into unconsciousness and I guess he raped my soul or something… No one else could see him while he was doing that… To them, I seemed dead…"

"Figures he would do something like that. That demon is mated with the Demon Lord of lust, so he probably learned that torture method from him."

"…Him?" she asked, slightly confused. "I'm surprised he's not with a girl after all that he did to me…"

"Well the other demon, Deleo, is both male and female, but he is recognized to many as just male. They really don't care about it, being the demons that they are. Anyway, we really shouldn't be talking about them since Zeku could be listening at any moment. He could be somewhere nearby…"

"Yeah, I kinda figured that part out when he seemed to be appearing wherever I went…" she paused for a few seconds. "We should probably be going now…"

Without saying anything else, Mutare simply stood up and lifted the piece of metal back up, soon beginning to continue on through the dense, swampy brush.

As Rachel stood up and begin following behind him, she soon thought of something. "What is that metal for anyway?" she asked.

"What else do you think it could be for besides one main thing?" he replied, growling a bit in annoyance. "It should be enough for me to finish making that biomechanical armor."

"I kinda figured that…" she sighed. As they passed through some more of the brush, Rachel felt her feet beginning to slowly sink down in a somewhat large pond of muddy water. "Why do we have to go through all of this? Couldn't we have just gone around this pond? I hate getting my armor dirty."

"We're walking through a pond so you can easily wash the armor off if it gets too muddy" he growled, continuing to step through the murky water. "I really hope you won't be annoying me with complaints everywhere we go."

"I'll try not to but it really might not work out…" she said as they finally reached the other side of the pond, stepping out of the water and onto the damp grass. "…Anyway, I do have a question for you that I just kinda thought about."

"Ugh, what is it?" he asked, growling slightly as he spoke.

"How are we even going to get off this planet? Do you have some type of ship or something that we can use?"

"Of course I have a ship... How else would I have gotten here? After I'm finished with that armor we can use the ship to leave."

"Also… what about Leon? I really don't want to leave him behind…"

"He's not coming with us. I'd rather he just die on this planet."

Rachel stopped walking instantly after hearing what he said. "Please let him come with us… I'll do anything to repay you…"

Mutare immediately stopped, turning around to face Rachel. "You really like that Grox, don't you?" he asked with a slight growl.

"As a friend, yes…" she replied. "He's like the first alien I've ever made friends with… I really don't know what I would do if he died…"

After a few seconds passed by, Mutare spoke again. "Fine. But you will have to do something in order to help me after we get off this planet. Right when I leave you and Leon at the base, I want you to free Omega and allow him to return back to our base."

Rachel hesitated to reply a bit. However she soon thought of her decision. "Okay, I accept. As long as Leon is safe it is fine with me…"

"Good…" Mutare replied, grinning at her slightly. After he turned back around and continued walking, he stopped in front of a tree and immediately set the piece of metal beside it and began to climb up the tree trunk, piercing his sharp, blade-like claws into the surface.

"Um… where are you going?" Rachel asked, walking up to the tree that he was climbing and looking upwards.

"I'm going to try to look for the tree that I had to sleep in the last time I came through here." Mutare replied, continuing to scale up the tree. "I should be able to see it from up here because it's larger than most of the ones here." In only a minute, he disappeared into the dense canopy.

Rachel sighed a bit and turned her focus back toward the ground, looking around a little while she waited for him to return. After what seemed to be about ten minutes, her attention soon focused towards the sound of something running through what sounded like water in the distance. She began getting nervous after hearing this, thinking that it could be something that would attack her. "Ugh… Why isn't Mutare back yet?" she said to herself, quickly glancing up the tree to see if he was anywhere nearby. However, she didn't see him. She soon turned her gaze to where she heard the running once again. What made her even more nervous was that it sounded as if it was getting closer to her. She soon quickly grasped onto the tree in attempt to climb it, fearing that she wasn't safe at the moment. Her fingers continued to slip off the rough tree bark as she tried climbing up, nearly causing her to panic. She tried more rapidly as she heard the creature approach. After seeing the creature appear out of the brush from the corner of her eye, she instantly noticed a familiar Grox, stopping and looking directly at her.

"Rachel, I told you to not follow me!" she heard Leon say with a growl. "I don't want to put you in danger! You know that!"

She soon slid off the tree trunk, turning around to face him. "Well you leaving me behind caused me to get lost!" she retorted, glaring at him. "I ended up in a place we've never been before, and then Mutare-"

"Mutare? What is he doing here?" he interrupted, his ears immediately flattening against the sides of his head.

"I was going to tell you that he's helping me! He said that he has a ship and he would take us both back to our base!"

"…Rachel you can't trust him! You saw what he tried to do to us before! He's just going to take us back to his base and assimilate us!"

"Just this one time, I know we can trust him!" She soon began to calm down a bit. "Look, even if he is lying don't you want to get off this planet?"

"Yes, I do but… I really don't want us to be assimilated…" He seemed to be calming down as well, slowly moving his ears back to where they were before. "…I guess if he tries then we can escape somehow, but I'm not going to enjoy this at all."

Soon enough, Rachel could hear the rustling sounds of movement in the tree behind her.

"I really don't care what you think, Grox." she heard Mutare say. She soon heard a loud thump on the ground, only to see that Mutare had seemed to have leaped down the rest of the way. "Anyway, I know where my former shelter is now." he said as he focused on Rachel. "This will make surviving a bit easier."

After Mutare picked up his piece of metal yet again and began to walk away, both Rachel and Leon began to follow behind. Rachel soon turned her gaze over to Leon. "…Where did the wolves go?" she asked, just now thinking about it.

"All of the remaining Ke'zuka were killed by one of the wetland's predators." he replied, looking at her as well. "I managed to escape I guess, since that creature doesn't seem to be anywhere nearby."

"I guess that explains why you were running…" she said, smiling a bit as she spoke. "But that's strange though… Mutare said that all the predators here are nocturnal…"

Leon soon turned his focus to Mutare. "Hey, how long is it going to take for us to get to that shelter of yours?" he asked, growling slightly.

"Don't worry, it's not much farther from here." he calmly replied.

After a few hours of navigating through the dense wetlands, Rachel noticed that night was beginning to approach. She was nearly exhausted at this point, since she was unable to rest for the entire time. "…Are we almost there?" she asked, wiping a bit of sweat off her forehead.

"Just a few more minutes and we'll be there." Mutare replied.

"It better be just a few more minutes…" she heard Leon respond in an annoyed tone. "We've been walking for hours it seems."

Soon enough, the three approached what seemed to be a small clearing, surrounded by the dense brush and random pools of water. Looking to the left of the clearing, Rachel noticed an immense tree trunk, which was much larger than the other trees she saw before. As she stopped and looked upwards, she noticed that a somewhat large hole seemed to be hollowed out of the tree trunk a distance away from the ground having one of the tree's thick branches directly below it.

"…So, I'm guessing your shelter is up there?" she asked, looking back over at Mutare.

"Yes, that is it." he replied as he stopped walking, placing his piece of metal down in front of him.

After Leon approached the tree and looked up as well, he laughed slightly and looked back at Mutare. "That is it? I kind of expected it to be more than just a hole in a tree."

"Hey, that hole took me hours to make." Mutare growled. "Just be glad that we don't have to make another one. Anyway, one of you should start collecting wood for a fire. The other should gather some edible food. As a warning, most of the plants here are toxic so whoever is looking for food should make sure it's some type of animal."

"I can go look for the food." Leon replied with a slight growl in his voice. "Only so I can be far away from you for at least a few minutes." He soon began to exit the clearing, disappearing into the dense brush of the wetlands.

Rachel sighed a bit, soon looking over at Mutare. "I'll go and look for some sticks… By the way, can you come with me? I really don't want to get lost again…"

"I guess I can do that." he replied in a seemingly annoyed tone. "I wasn't planning on doing anything anyway."

"…So you were just going to stay here and do nothing while me and Leon do all the work?" she asked, beginning to walk towards the brush as she noticed that Mutare began walking as well.

"Well while I have two enemies here who are forced to help me in order to get off this planet, I thought that I might as well let you two do the work for me." he said with a grin.

"That's not very nice…" she whispered to herself as she began to pick up anything that she thought she could use for the fire.

Soon enough, the skies were completely dark. The only thing that seemed to be lighting this obscure environment was the blazing flames from the newly created fire. Rachel was sitting down beside the fire, waiting for Leon to return from hunting. Mutare was doing the same, although to Rachel it seemed as if he was close to falling asleep.

"…Do you think we should go check on Leon?" Rachel asked, breaking the silence.

Mutare lazily looked over at Rachel. "He should probably be back soon. If he isn't, then we'll go look for him. Although I really wish he would come back soon with some food."

"Yeah, me too…" she sighed. "I'm just a little worried about him since he's been gone for so long…"

"Just try to focus off of it for now. It's not that difficult to do."

"Well it is for me…" she almost quietly replied, turning her gaze towards the flames. As she watched the seemingly hypnotic flickers of the scorching blaze, it seemed like only seconds before she heard what sounded like someone dragging something across the ground behind her. She quickly looked towards that direction, instantly noticing Leon dragging what seemed to be a medium-sized reptilian towards the fire. On closer inspection, she soon saw that the animal seemed to have a beak-like mouth, brown, scaly skin, and a few random feathers around its head and along its neck, as well as on the backs of its slender legs.

"What took you so long?" Mutare growled, looking up at Leon once he stopped by the fire.

Leon released the hind feet of the animal, soon looking down at Mutare. "Well first I had to find this creature and kill it." he replied, sounding irritated. "Then because of its weight I had to drag it all the way back here. It wasn't simple at all."

"Well you could have at least hurried up after noticing that night is here." Mutare sighed. "I already warned you about the predators that are here during the night, and both the fire and the smell of that animal will attract them directly here."

"Let's just stop arguing and eat quickly, okay?" Rachel interrupted, knowing that if they continued then predators would definitely find them.

Leon looked over at Rachel, seeming to be calming down. "…I guess we probably should." he replied, sitting down beside her.

After the three finally finished eating, Rachel leisurely stood up, however she froze after she heard a shrieking call from a creature in the distance. "…What was that?" she nervously asked, looking at Mutare.

"One of the predators." he growled, standing up. "We need to get into the shelter now before it gets here."

Rachel walked over to the tree quickly, soon looking up and grasping onto the trunk. She attempted to climb it, however it seemed to be impossible since her fingers simply slid off. "How are we supposed to get up here anyway?"

As she turned around, she noticed that Mutare had walked over to where she was, soon piercing his claws into the tree trunk and swiftly climbing up towards the shelter.

"Hey, what about us?" she asked as she watched him disappearing into the hole. Soon enough, she noticed what seemed to be a lengthy, metallic rope appearing in front of her.

"Use this to climb up." she heard Mutare say from above. Before grasping onto the rope, she heard the same eerie shriek in the distance, however it seemed much closer this time. She froze in fear after hearing this noise.

"Rachel, what are you doing?" she heard Leon shout behind her. "Get up there before the predators attack us!"

Rachel immediately snapped out of the strange trance she was in, quickly climbing up the tree and eventually safely reaching the hole, sitting down against one of the walls of the shelter and sighing deeply in relief. Seconds later, she moved over to the edge of the hole and peered downwards, only to see that Leon wasn't too far behind. She backed away and leaned up against the wall again once he safely reached the inside. She soon noticed that the rope that Mutare was holding quickly seemed to split up into tiny nanites, speedily returning beneath his armor.

"…So this is it?" Leon asked, gazing around the hole a bit before he sat down beside Rachel. "There is barely seems to be enough room for us all to sleep comfortably."

"Well I wasn't exactly expecting anyone to follow me on my way back." Mutare growled, leaning up against the opposite side of the shelter from Leon and Rachel. "Now, I'm going to attempt to sleep. I suggest you both do the same."

Rachel watched as he sluggishly lay down across the other side of the shelter, soon closing his malicious, glowing eyes in attempt to fall asleep. She soon lied down beside Leon, finding it difficult to get comfortable on the hard, wooden floor. She looked over at him, noticing that he seemed to be glaring at Mutare as he slept.

"Leon, are you gonna sleep?" she simply asked, attempting to get his focus off Mutare.

Leon's gaze slowly turned towards her as he carefully lied down behind her. He then moved his mouth to her ear and whispered. "Mutare will probably attack us once we fall asleep. I think we should just kill him to increase our chances of survival."

"…But he promised to help us." she whispered back, turning her head towards Leon. "Even though he's an enemy, I think he'll at least help us get off this planet."

"He wants me dead, Rachel." he said in a sterner tone, still attempting to be quiet enough for Mutare not to hear him speaking. "I don't understand at all why he agreed to help us. Besides, if I kill him now the Omegas will no longer have someone intelligent enough to reprogram lifeforms and develop new technologies for them. It would destroy the faction for good."

"Please, just don't worry about it…" she replied, remembering her deal with Mutare. She really didn't want to inform Leon about this, knowing he would most likely never forgive her for it.

"…Fine, but if one of us ends up getting killed or left behind, it will be your fault for not letting me kill him."

"I'm sorry Leon… I just think that some people can be given second chances. He may have done a lot of bad things in the past, but he offered to help us get off the planet…"

"I know that. I just don't believe it. Now, that's all I will discuss of it. I'm going to sleep now." Right after saying this, Rachel watched as he closed his eyes.

She sighed, attempting to get comfortable once again, knowing that she shouldn't bother Leon anymore. After she managed to get a bit more comfortable, she closed her eyes and slept.

Rachel was awoken with a jolt after hearing the loud, rustling sounds of movement in the tree branches. She quickly sat up and looked around, hearing the movement continuing to get closer. Upon awakening, she noticed that it seemed to be close to daytime since a bit of lighting filled the area. She noticed that Leon and Mutare didn't seem to be woken up by the strange noise, seeing them continuing to sleep. She was about to simply lie back down and ignore the noise, until her focus quickly turned to a loud thud on the tree limb in front of the hole. There, she saw a medium sized, greenish-brown colored reptilian, having a long, slender body and a large amount of thin webbing that connected its front legs to its sides. Its tail that was now coiled around the branch was nearly lengthier than the rest of it, having the same type of webbing around the sides of it as well. Four jet black colored talons on its back feet and three on the front pierced through the sides of the branch to keep it steady. Her gaze quickly turned toward its head, noticing its long, menacing jaws and its beady, amber eyes. The creature opened its sharp, toothy jaws widely and let out a high-pitched hiss, turning its head towards Rachel after it finished. She quickly moved back and drew out her blaster swiftly, aiming at it as it slowly began approaching.

"Leon, Mutare, wake up!" she shouted in panic, fearing that either she would be killed, or they would be eaten before they could even wake up.

Both of them instantly sat up, turning their focus towards the creature as it shrieked loudly at them. She watched as Leon drew out his blaster as well, instantly beginning to shoot at the beast's head. This, however, didn't seem to be damaging the thick organic armor that covered its face. It quickly shot forward into the hole as it shrieked, managing to bite the arm that Leon was using to shoot at it. Leon shouted out in pain as its fangs ripped through his flesh, dropping the blaster immediately.

"Leon!" she shouted, knowing that he was now in danger. She swiftly held her blaster up towards the reptilian's eye, but before she could shoot its snake-like tail brushed her aside and caused her to be tossed backwards onto the tree limb outside. Her blaster nearly slipped out of her hand, however she managed to grasp onto it tightly as she rapidly sat back up and moved back inside. She held her blaster up towards the creature once again as she watched the beast clawing and biting at Leon as he yelped in pain and did his best to keep the creature from killing him. Her finger slipped over the trigger and she repeatedly fired blasts at the reptile, watching as the blasts managed to pierce through the top of its neck. A loud shriek came from the beast as it stopped its assault and focused back on her. Right as it began to charge at her, she swiftly pulled the trigger a few more times in fear. Two of these blasts managed to hit the creature directly in its eye. It snarled in pain and reared up on its hind legs, pawing at its face with its claws as if it thought that something was now stuck in its eye. Seeing this as a chance to attack once again, Rachel fired a few more shots at the beast, noticing that the blasts sizzled through its soft chest. The reptile gave out one last shriek before its body went limp and collapsed to the ground below.

Rachel watched the creature's body for a few more seconds, soon distracted by the dog-like whimpering sounds coming from inside the shelter. She quickly moved back inside, kneeling down beside Leon. He was bleeding badly, and his injuries seemed severe enough to cause death in only a few minutes. Not knowing what to do, she swiftly looked over at where Mutare was, only to see that he was no longer sitting there. She looked towards the hole's exit, seeing that he was creeping away from them both.

"Mutare, you have to help him!" Rachel shouted, feeling tears beginning to form in her eyes. "He's dying and there is nothing I can do to help him!"

Mutare slowly turned back around, having a slight grin on his face. "Actually, I think I'd rather just let him die." he said, slowly approaching the two back inside the shelter. "Then I'll have one less enemy to worry about."

"Please, you can't just let him suffer like this! You can just use your nanites to help him out!"

"The only helping I would do for him is to end his suffering with death." he growled as he turned his gaze towards Leon's dying body. At this point, Leon seemed to be unconscious.

"…What about our deal?" Rachel shouted, feeling the tears running down her face. "If he dies, I'm never going to free Omega for you! He can just rot in prison for eternity!"

"I really don't care much about that." he said with a devious smirk, focusing his menacing eyes back on Rachel. "I can always get someone else to free him. I only agreed to not kill your little friend just to shut you up. And besides, I'm not killing him. I'm just letting him die."

"…Look I'll do anything else you want me to do! Anything! Just please don't let Leon die!"

"I will only accept one other thing from you." he replied, his smirk growing a bit. "You must join my faction and never even think of returning to that Alliance again. Sure, Leon won't die, but later on he might just have to kill you for being on my side…"

"...Okay I will!" she reluctantly replied. "Now please, save him!"

Mutare's grin soon faded, seeming as if he didn't think that she would accept his offer. He walked over to Leon and knelt down beside him, placing his clawed hand on Leon's head as he released billions of nanites onto him.

Soon enough, Rachel noticed that Leon's wounds rapidly began to fade. After Mutare withdrew his nanites from Leon and moved his hand away, she quickly bent down and wrapped her arms tightly around Leon. She felt his arms wrap around her back as well, now knowing that he seemed to be alright.

"Whenever you two are done with that, we should be continuing to the base." she heard Mutare say as he began to walk towards the exit yet again.

Rachel finally released her grip around Leon, simply smiling as she looked into his bright, emerald eyes. Leon smiled back at her, soon sitting up and preparing to leave the shelter.


	13. Chapter 13

After getting down from the tree, Mutare began to lead Leon and Rachel back into the dense brush of the swamp. In the far distance, Rachel could hear the faint sound of rapidly moving water.

"I guess we're close to the river now…" she said as she pushed aside some strange-looking plants while she followed Mutare.

"Yes, it won't take much longer now." he replied, continuing to walk. "Although, it will still take a few more days to reach the base. We still have to pass through the forest ahead, as well as the wastelands after that."

"I know…" she sighed. "I really wish there was a quicker way to-"

Before she could finish what she was saying, she was interrupted by an ominous, roaring noise she heard towards the sky. Once she looked up, nothing was there. Soon enough, she was distracted once more by a beeping noise she heard beside her. Stopping and looking over to her side, she noticed Leon walking alongside her.

"Um, Leon… Are you beeping?" she asked, confused as to what was going on.

"Now why would I be making those noises?" he asked in a slightly annoyed tone. "It's just my communicator." He soon stopped walking and pulled the device off of his belt, pressing a button that caused the device to begin to playback the transmission.

/We have detected your distress signal and I have landed in a clear area next to your location./ a voice said in what seemed to be similar to a British accent. /Keep walking straight and you will find my ship. Once you are there, board it immediately./

"Oh, so I guess that really loud noise coming from the sky was his ship." Rachel said after the transmission finished. "Anyway, why didn't you think to use your communicator to contact someone nearby? I mean it seems like you didn't even think about it, even though you probably should have done that right when we crashed on the planet…"

"I didn't think about it since I thought it was damaged from the crash." Leon replied with a slight growl in his voice. After pressing a button on the communicator, he soon began to reply to the person who contacted him. "I never sent out a distress signal, so how did you find me?"

/Your ship automatically sent it out to anyone nearby./ the person replied, coughing a few times after saying this. /You're fortunate that none of your enemies seemed to care about it./

"Wait, if my ship sent out that distress signal right before it crashed, then why the hell weren't you here any sooner?" His mood seemed to shift, having an angered tone in his voice.

/Well maybe if you paid more attention to the problems that our Empire faces, then maybe you would notice that we have more important things to focus on. Anyway, get to my location as soon as possible./

After the transmission ended, Rachel watched Leon as he placed the communicator back onto his belt. As she looked around a bit, she soon realized that Mutare was nowhere in sight. "…I guess Mutare decided to not follow us to the ship." she said, looking back at Leon.

"I had a feeling that he would run away anyway. He is a major threat to this galaxy, and if any of our allies sees him then they wouldn't hesitate to capture him." Once he finished talking, he began to walk forward, stepping over a murky puddle of water as he walked to the ship.

"Well I'm glad that he decided to chicken out anyway." she replied, beginning to walk alongside him, stepping over the puddle as well. "Now I don't have to keep that deal that we had made earlier…"

"…You made a deal with him?" he asked in a somewhat angered tone as he halted, his ears flicking back a bit. "What did you promise to do for him?"

"…Well, the only way for him to let you follow us was to agree to free Omega…" she asked, stopping beside him, now slightly nervous after informing him about this. "…Then later on the only way he would heal you after you got attacked by that lizard was if I agreed to join his faction…"

"What the hell were you thinking?" he asked as his ears swiftly pinned against the sides of his head. "Would you have actually done that and betrayed the Alliance?"

"I did it for you, Leon! I didn't want you to die!" She heard the beeping noise from the communicator once more. "You should probably answer that." Her voice seemed to calm down a bit, however she was still angered after hearing Leon's response.

"I'm not finished with you yet! You will never betray the Alliance, even if my life is in danger! Don't you ever agree to do something stupid like that ever again! If the Emperors found out about this then they would treat you like a criminal! Then your own life would be the one in danger!" He paused for a bit, letting out a deep sigh as he pulled the communicator back out from his belt, his ears starting to return back to their original position again. "Promise me that you will never do anything like that again." he said in a calmer tone.

"…I promise." she said, hesitating a bit. She knew that this probably would be a lie, but she didn't want to let Leon know about it. She watched as he pressed the button on the communicator once more.

/Hurry up already!/ the person shouted in what seemed to be a frightened tone. /I just saw Omega's assimilator cross over the river and I really don't want to be captured if there are more of them here!/

Not even responding to the person, Leon simply placed the device back on his belt and continued walking forward. As Rachel followed, the distant sounds of the river seemed to be getting closer, so she knew that it wouldn't be much longer before they found the ship.

After a few minutes passed, the two finally stepped through the remaining brush of the swamp, exiting into a somewhat large clearing with a river lining the very back. A dark, ominous forest was on the other side of the river, having what seemed to be thorn covered vines hanging down from many of the trees. Rachel could barely hear the shrill calls of one of the creatures living there, since the noise from the river rapids were so loud. In the center of the clearing was a small-sized spaceship, seemingly large enough to fit about four or five people. As she focused off the ship, she noticed a lightly-armored Grox standing beside it. His brown colored mane was dull, as well as his light, reddish-gray fur. His pale skin had a gray tinge to it, and overall he had what seemed to be a sickly appearance.

"We should probably be leaving now." the Grox said, coughing a few more times as he turned to his ship, walking through the entrance afterward as if he knew they would follow him.

As Leon and Rachel began to follow the Grox into the ship, Rachel began to examine the Grox's appearance, automatically thinking that something seemed wrong about him. "Um… are you okay?" she cautiously asked after walking inside, stopping beside Leon after she noticed him pressing a button on the wall of the ship, causing the door to seal shut. "You look kinda sick and I don't really want either one of us to catch whatever you have…" After finding a place to sit down, she noticed that the Grox seemed to ignore her, simply walking to the pilot's seat and sitting down, growling a bit.

Leon soon sat down beside her. "Don't worry, his problem isn't contagious. It won't happen to us unless we stay outside on his planet for too long."

"Why is that?" she asked, hearing the ship's engine beginning to start.

"Many of the planets in the Empire he's from were industrialized in order for them to manufacture enough weapons and machinery to fight against their enemies. Their planets are polluted enough to prevent anyone from seeing the planet's true appearance through the thick amount of smog. It's caused a lot of health problems for their citizens, and that's why I usually avoid going to their Empire."

"Alright, so we should probably just get a ship there so we can go back to where we came from."

"We can't leave that quickly. We still have to tell their Emperor that the package we were supposed to give him is destroyed."

"Oh, almost forgot about that…" She heard the ship beginning to take off, leaning back in her seat a little bit to get comfortable. "Do you think he'll be mad?"

"Most likely, yes. I don't know what was in that package but it must have been important. Even though the crash-landing was an accident, I'll probably be blamed for flying near enemy territory."

After a few seconds of silence, Rachel yawned and stretched a bit, sinking down farther in her seat and leaning her body somewhat closer to Leon. "I think I'm gonna go to sleep while we wait for the ship to land. Is it alright if I use your arm as a pillow?"

"I guess it's alright." he said, sounding slightly confused. "But it won't take very long for us to get there now. Probably only 15 to 20 minutes."

"I don't care… I just want to rest a bit so I don't have to stare at the wall or the floor while I wait." She leaned her head against his arm, feeling his soft fur comfortably pressing against the side of her face. She closed her eyes, drifting off into sleep.

Once what seemed to be only seconds passed by, she felt a soft hand nudging her arm. She lazily opened her eyes, looking up at Leon. "…Are we there?"

"Yes, we are." he said with a slight smile. "We actually managed to finally get here safely."

"Were there any problems getting here?" she asked, sluggishly sitting up.

"None at all."

"That's good…" she replied, noticing the other Grox walking from the front of the ship to the back, pressing a button nearby a door and disappearing into a room after the door slid open. After a few minutes, the Grox returned to the middle of the ship, holding in his hands what seemed to be two respirators. She noticed that another one was now covering his face as well.

"You will need to wear these while you are outside on this planet." he said, his voice having an electronic tone from the respirator. "If you take this off and breathe in the air, it can kill you in about a minute."

Rachel watched as Leon took one of the respirators from the Grox, placing it on his face and making sure it was securely attached to his head. Rachel soon took the other one afterward before the Grox began to walk toward the exit.

"You know, I just thought of something…" she said to Leon as she examined the respirator. "What are we going to do about that demon? We can't just let his plans succeed…"

"I contacted Zadok about it while you were sleeping. He said that he'll handle it."

"…Did you tell him about the package?"

"No, not yet… I don't think it's important for him to know about it anyway."

Rachel soon placed the respirator over her face, securing it onto her head tightly so it wouldn't fall off. Both her and Leon stood up afterward and walked to the other Grox, watching as he pressed the button to open the door.

Once the door slid open, Rachel could already feel the warm, contaminated air against her skin. As she followed the two out of the ship, her gaze turned to the sky, looking at what seemed to be a monstrous cloud of thick, brown clouds that completely covered the entire atmosphere. She could barely see the light from the sun at all through the thick smog.

"Both of you should go on to the base." the Grox said, standing in the doorway of the ship. "I have more important things to do than show you two around."

After the Grox closed the door of the ship, Rachel sighed and looked over at Leon. "We should probably do what he said. I'd really like to get this respirator off me soon."

"He's lucky that I know where to go…" Leon growled as he began to walk towards the city. The majority of the buildings appeared to be towering factories, except for the large, sleek skyscraper that was positioned towards the center. As they walked through the city, Rachel noticed that there didn't seem to be many people wandering around at all. Occasionally she saw a few lightly-armored guards who were either guarding certain buildings or patrolling the area. All of the Grox she saw appeared sickly, the same as the pilot.

"Leon, why don't these people go somewhere else if the pollution is damaging their health?" she curiously asked.

"Mostly the only ones who work here are either soldiers or engineers, and they cannot leave. They get paid a lot in order to keep them here."

After a few more minutes, the two finally began to approach the immense skyscraper. As Rachel looked upwards, she noticed that she couldn't see much of the upper half of it because of the smog cloud. Focusing back towards the earth, she began to follow Leon up a few large stair steps towards the entrance. Guarding the door was two of the Grox soldiers. Neither one of them said anything to them as they entered. Once Leon closed the door behind him and Rachel after they entered, Rachel watched as he removed the respirator from his head and attached it to his belt. She did the same afterward, relieved to finally be breathing in what seemed to be fresh, cool air.

"So what now?" she asked as she gazed around the large, yet plain area. Both the walls, floor, and ceiling was made of the same, sleek metal. However, there was absolutely no type of decoration. On both the left and right sides of this room was a door, and towards the back of the room were three elevators.

"Now, we look for the Emperor. He should be somewhere in his office at this time, which is located on the top floor. So we'll have to use an elevator to get up there."

It only took a few minutes for them to pick out one of the elevators and ride it up to the top floor, since it moved at such a rapid speed. Once they exited and began walking down the hallway, Rachel managed to notice a female Grox, who seemed to be waiting on something before they arrived, but was now seemingly staring at Leon. She appeared to be much healthier than the other Grox, which made her think that this one was just visiting the planet for some reason.

As they walked by, Rachel could see out of the corner of her eye that the Grox was still staring at Leon. She soon moved a bit closer to him and whispered in his ear. "Um… there is a Grox behind us who is staring at you really hard…"

She watch as Leon immediately stopped and turned around, looking back at the Grox. "I suggest you stop staring at me." he said with a slight glare. "You have no reason to do so."

"Of course I do, General Leon." the Grox said, smiling. "I'm surprised you don't recognize me yet."

"Well if I don't recognize you, then we've never met before. Who are you?"

"…You seriously don't remember me?" she said as her smile began to fade. "Sure it's been a few years since we've seen each other but I would still think you would remember me… My name is Alaia."

Leon paused for a few minutes, as if he was attempting to remember her name. "Wait… I remember you now." he smiled. "I can't believe I actually forgot who you were."

Alaia walked over to Leon and hugged him tightly. "I'm glad we finally met again."

"Same here." he said, chuckling a bit. They soon released their embrace. "Although what are you doing here? This place is very dangerous."

"I was actually told that you were coming here. So I decided to come here first to meet you again. Although it did take you a while to actually arrive…"

"My ship crash-landed on a planet and I was stuck there for a while." He soon turned his gaze to Rachel. "Rachel can you go on the Emperor Yuri's office and talk to him? It's in the third door on the left. Right now I think I'm going to be talking to Alaia for a bit but I'll be sure to meet you back up here after I'm done."

Rachel said nothing in response as she watched the two walk away, entering the elevator soon after. She began to feel a slight bit of jealousy fill her for some reason, since Leon left her alone to finish what they came here for just so he could talk to Alaia. After walking towards the door that Leon told her about, she entered the room and peered inside. Inside the room was an office, which had a few large windows on the back walls. All she could see through the window was a dark reddish color, guessing that where she was now was over the layer of smog. She looked towards the desk, noticing that a Grox was sitting down behind it, looking at some papers. He seemed to appear a lot healthier than the other Grox, having a dark brown mane and pale skin. His fur had a slight brownish tint to it, giving him a darker appearance. He was wearing what seemed to be a thin gray buttoned-up coat and black slacks. He had the same cybernetics as the other Emperors, however his eyepiece was more rectangular, having a blue colored lens. Other than that, she noticed that on the bottom of his right ear closest to his head were two small silver-colored ring piercings.

After Rachel finished examining his appearance, she soon decided to get his attention. "Emperor Yuri? Is that you?" she cautiously asked.

The Grox soon turned his gaze towards Rachel. "Yes, it is." he said in the same accent as the pilot from earlier. "Why are you here?"

"General Leon sent me to tell you about the mission we were doing." she said as she walked over to a chair in front of his desk, sitting down in it comfortably.

"Oh, so you are the one Zadok told me about." he said, smiling somewhat. "You're Rachel, right?"

"Yeah that's me." she replied, smiling as well.

"…So where is Leon? Shouldn't he be here with you?"

The same jealously from earlier began to return to her, shifting her mood immediately. "He's here, but he thought he'd rather go off and talk to some girl, instead of tell you about the mission himself." she said in a slightly annoyed tone. "I really don't get how he could just leave me to finish this mission and go off with her. He's been with me for probably a week now, and he just goes off with someone who he barely could even remember."

"It seems to me that you are just jealous of the girl, but anyway can you please just tell me about the mission instead of complain about Leon? Where is the package?"

"Destroyed on some random planet…" she said, still sounding annoyed. "But anyway I still don't get how Leon could just do that to me… He's so annoying sometimes."

"Look I really don't know anything about how you feel about Leon, and I really don't care either. But he's probably been friends with that Grox for years maybe, while you've only known him for about a week. It makes sense if you think about it."

Rachel paused for a few seconds, beginning to think over what he said. "I guess you're right…" she said with a sigh, calming down somewhat. "I think I've just got kinda attached to him or something… He's the first alien that I made friends with, and he has been helping me out a lot. I know we haven't known each other for long, but I think I'm starting to like him…"

"If all you are going to talk about is your annoying personal problems, then you should probably leave." he said after sighing a bit. "You already told me what I needed to know, so both of you can return back to Zadok."

"The problem is that I'm probably going to be forced to wait for a long time. Leon didn't tell me where he and that Grox were going. Is there anything that I can do for you that could keep me busy?"

"I'm sure I can think of something. Anything to keep you from bothering me while I'm trying to work." After a few seconds of silence, he soon spoke again. "I don't think there is anything you can do for me, but you can walk around the city for a bit. You might find something to do around there."

"I'd rather stay indoors, but I guess I can do that." she sighed, slowly standing back up.

After going back down to the first floor of the skyscraper and making her way towards the entrance, she carefully placed the respirator back on her head and exited the building.

"_What does he expect me to find out here?"_ she thought, looking around at the city's dull appearance. As she walked around the empty streets for a few minutes, she could hear the sound of fast-moving footsteps beginning to approach her. She swiftly stopped and turned around, only to see a faint cloud of dust floating across the street. It was as if someone really did run behind her, except no one was there. She walked forward a bit and looked around to see if she could find the person who did that, not having anything else better to do.

Seconds later, she was abruptly stopped after a thick, invisible object slammed against the front part of her legs, causing her to collapse. As she quickly attempted to stand back up, she could feel the strength of something pushing against her back, forcing her back to the ground.

"Hey, let me go!" she shouted at whoever had her pinned down, struggling wildly in attempt to free herself. She didn't know what was going to happen to her, causing her to become frightened.

"I suggest you stop struggling, Alliance soldier." the person said with an unfamiliar accent, having a feminine voice. Her voice had an electronic tone to it, making Rachel assume that she was wearing a respirator as well. "Since you are the only one of your kind that I could find on this planet, I will be taking you back to my employer."

"You aren't going to be taking me anywhere!" Rachel shouted as she continued to struggle.

The person began to laugh in a seemingly devious tone. "You have no other choice."

In only seconds, Rachel could feel a sharp, needle-like object piercing through her neck. She shouted out in both pain and fear as her struggling began to strengthen. She thought that she had to escape from this person, fearing what her fate might be if she continued to be captured.

After what seemed to be a minute passed by, she could feel her mind beginning to get foggy. Her vision was beginning to get worse, slowly blurring until she was unable to see at all anymore. At this point, her struggles only continued to weaken. She knew now that the person must have injected her with some type of tranquilizer, and she knew that there was nothing she could do in order to escape. She gave up on her struggling, allowing her eyes to slowly close as she was forced into unconsciousness.


	14. Chapter 14

As Rachel slowly opened her eyes, she already noticed the dark atmosphere that she was now in, even though her vision was blurred for the first few seconds after her awakening. She could feel the icy coldness of metal against her skin. She slowly sat up, gazing around at what seemed to be a small cell. At first, the cell seemed to not have any doors at all, until she finally noticed one that was positioned on a wall to her left. She sluggishly stood up off the metallic bed that she had been sitting on, walking over towards the door. As she examined it, she realized that there was absolutely no way to open it. She let out a deep sigh, trudging back over to the bed and sitting down on its hard edge. Only seconds later, her attention was turned to the door, seeing that it had just slid open.

In the doorway was an unfamiliar, bipedal alien. Its brown colored scales appeared smooth, slightly giving it the appearance of the skin of a mammal. A short horn extended out from above both of its golden, reptilian eyes, pressed up against the side of its head until it passed directly above its webbed, fin-like ears, slightly curving towards each other off the lizard's head. Behind its both of its eyes was what seemed to be another short horn, twisting down towards its body. Rachel also noticed that it had a slender body, having four fingers and three toes, each having razor sharp talons. It was wearing what seemed to be lightweight armor, having a blaster strapped to one side of its belt, and what appeared to be a dagger on the other side.

"Stand up and follow me." the reptilian hissed, her voice sounding similar to the alien who attacked Rachel earlier.

"I will if you explain to me why you brought me here." Rachel replied, glaring at the lizard.

Without a response, the alien darted forward towards Rachel, grasping onto her arms and forcing her to stand up. She began dragging her out of the cell shortly afterward.

"Hey let me go!" Rachel shouted, struggling to get free of the alien's grasp. Despite her thrashing, the reptile's grip remained unchanged as she managed to pull her out into the dimly-lit hallway. "Where are you taking me?"

"Just shut up already girl!" the alien snarled, bearing her sharp teeth. "My employer wants to interrogate you and I'm taking you to him."

"Well you can just go and tell him that I'm not telling him anything!"

"If you won't tell him what he needs to know then he'll just kill you. Useless prisoners have no purpose to him."

After a few minutes passed, Rachel was forced into a large, empty room, having the same dim lighting as all the other rooms that she had been in so far. The reptile soon loosened her grip and walked forward a bit, stopping towards the middle of the room. Rachel struggled a bit, managing to get free from the alien's grip. She didn't attempt to run though, since she knew that it would be impossible to escape. She gazed around the room, noticing a small security camera placed on all four sides of the room. Each of the cameras seemed to be staring at her intensely, not looking away from her at all. Seconds later, her attention was shifted towards the back of the room, hearing a door sliding open and the sounds of metallic footsteps walking in.

What she saw entering the room was an armored male Grox, having Omega-like cybernetic replacements for his eyes, arms, and legs. His skin was nearly tan, and his fur was red-orange, brighter than most of the Grox she had seen before. His short, trimmed mane was a bit darker than his fur, having a brownish tint to it. Other than that, she noticed that he was wearing a long cape of short, dark red-orange fur.

"Well, Nakalé, it seems you have finally brought me an Alliance soldier." the Grox said with a sharp-toothed grin as he began approaching the two, his accent sounding similar to Totus'. "I'm actually glad I decided to not kill you after you tried to assassinate me. Being the species that you are, that should help us defeat the Alliance after I send you out on a few more missions."

"Thank you sir." Nakalé replied.

The Grox soon stopped in front of Rachel, still looking at the lizard. "Anyway, you can leave now. I'm sure I can handle this soldier if she decides to cause me difficulties."

"Alright sir." she replied, grinning somewhat. Rachel watched as the reptile turned around and exited the room, soon turning her gaze back to the Grox.

After the Grox looked at Rachel, he spoke once again. "Now, it is time for you to answer some questions for me. First of all, what is your name?"

"My name is Rachel." she replied, sounding somewhat nervous. "…Who are you?"

"…You don't know who I am?" he asked, having a slight growl in his voice. "I would think all of the Alliance soldiers would know who I am. I am the Emperor of the Southeastern and Southwestern Empires, Erza.

Rachel became increasingly nervous after hearing who this Grox really was. "Oh… I've heard about you, but I never knew what you looked like."

"Well now you know." he said with a grin. "Anyway, how did you survive the invasion? I thought my father had all of you humans killed."

"I'm from a different universe." she simply replied.

"I guess that explains it. Now, tell me everything you know about the Alliance. Not the basics though. I want the important details."

Rachel paused for a few seconds, not sure of what to say. "I really have only been inside the base for a few days. I don't know anything important about it. No one has told me anything like that…"

Erza sighed after hearing her say this. "Well that's a disappointment. You could have been very useful to me." He soon began to grin, seeming to have thought of an idea. "Since you are no longer of any importance to me, I think I'll have you for dinner tonight. I've always wondered what humans tasted like…"

"…Please tell me you wouldn't really do that…" she said, beginning to get nervous once again.

"I've eaten many other sentient species before, including my own, so don't think that I wouldn't do that to you." After he finished saying that, he simply turned around and began walking towards the door at the back of the room.

"Are you sure there isn't any other way that I can help you…?" she swiftly asked as she began following alongside him. "I'm sure there has to be something…"

He soon opened the door, exiting into the hallway. "I can think about it, but right now my idea seems to be the better option to me."

She quickly exited the room before the door closed back again, continuing to follow him. "Um… How about I just assist you? Like become your assistant or something?"

"Unfortunately for you, I have many assistants already." he said, glancing over at her. "Although now that I think about it, you seem like you should be useful for something, other than turning into food. I guess you can follow me around for a while. But if you do anything wrong, you know what will happen to you."

Rachel sighed in relief. "Thank you…" After thinking of something else she could say, she soon spoke again. "So where are we going now?"

"Right now we are going to my room. It's midnight now and I'm getting tired."

"I guess that's okay with me. As long as you don't try to kill me while I'm sleeping…"

"Don't worry, I won't." he said, laughing slightly. "I'm starting to like the idea of you being another one of my assistants."

"Alright… Where will I be sleeping anyway?"

He soon stopped in front of a door, opening it and stepping inside the room. "You will be staying with me, at least for tonight. I don't trust you enough for you to have your own room."

Rachel simply sighed, following him inside the room. Looking around, it appeared to look like a standard bedroom, except a bit more luxurious. "So when exactly will you be able to trust me? I still don't trust you either so I would really like a room as soon as possible…"

"It depends." he replied, walking over to the bed.

She was about to say something in response, however she soon began to think of something. "…Wait, am I gonna have to sleep in the same bed as you too?"

"It's either that or you sleep on the floor." he said as he climbed onto the bed, lying down beneath the sheets. "I'd rather you sleep on the floor actually. I'm not use to having someone else in my bed."

"I'm not sleeping on the floor…" she sighed, walking over to the other side of the bed and examining it. The size of the bed was huge, which she thought was more than enough for a Grox to sleep on. She got into the bed, pulling the covers over her after lying down and resting her head against a comfortable pillow. "I don't even know how you would notice the difference anyway…"

"I guess that is true." he replied, laughing slightly. "But I'm sure you understand what I mean by that."

"Kinda…" She shifted in the bed a bit, attempting to get more comfortable. Soon enough, a thought appeared in her head. "…You know I've been wondering something. The way the Alliance described you, I would imagine you to be kinda ruthless or insane… You're actually a lot friendlier than I thought…"

"Well you won't be seeing that part of me as long as you don't anger me." he chuckled. "But the Alliance only describes me that way because they are my enemies. It gives them a better reason for them to attack my Empire. I'm really a good person if you think about it. At least that's what I believe."

"I guess…" her gaze soon shifted to the ceiling as she began to feel drowsy, close to falling asleep. "…So what will we be doing tomorrow?"

"Just going through my usual routine until I find something else for you to do. Now, we should probably sleep."

"Fine with me…" she said with a sigh. She closed her eyes, comfortably falling asleep.

Upon gradually waking up, Rachel realized that the surface below her was now solid and cold, unlike the comfortable surface of the bed. She lazily opened her eyes, instantly realizing that she was now lying on the floor, right beside the bed. After sitting up, she noticed Erza looking down at her.

"…How did this happen?" she asked, sluggishly standing up.

"You wouldn't wake up so I had to push you off." he replied, smirking.

"…You could have woken me up some other way you know." she said in a more annoyed tone, wondering why he had to resort to pushing her off instead of some simpler way.

"I think that I liked that choice better. It seemed more entertaining."

"That's just mean…" she sighed, starting to think a little. "So what will we do first?"

"First, we will bathe. And yes, at the same time too."

"…Um, do you really think we should be taking a bath together?" she asked, now somewhat nervous about the situation.

"Yes because I have something important to do soon and I need to get ready for it as fast as possible. Besides, the tub is basically just like a small pool anyway. It's big enough for us both."

Rachel hesitated to respond at first, soon sighing. "Fine… just don't look…"

She watched Erza as he smirked a little, walking over to a door and opening it. "Don't worry. I'm not attracted to your hideous species anyway."

After watching him walk inside the bathroom for a few seconds, she glared. "…Well you aren't so perfect yourself you know…" she replied in an annoyed tone, following him inside. She looked around a bit, noticing a medium-sized pit in the floor that was filled with steaming hot water already, making it appear to look more like a hot springs than a bathtub.

"It's just that your species looks so strange." he replied, approaching the tub. "You have no fur, your nose is sticking out of your face, you have too many fingers and toes… Do I need to say anything else to prove my point?"

Rachel muttered under her breath a bit before speaking. "Can we just get this over with already? I thought you said you needed to get ready soon."

"Well we could have been done by now if you hadn't continued to distract me."

After the two finished bathing and putting their armor back on, they walked out of the bathroom, now soaking wet.

"Are we gonna dry off before we leave?" she complained, following Erza to the door that led to the hallway.

"We have to air-dry for now." he replied, opening the door and exiting into the hallway. "It would take about a while to dry off all of my fur."

Rachel sighed, beginning to feel slightly cold after stepping into the hallway. The air and the water combined made her body tremble a bit in attempt to keep her warm. "So what next?"

"Next we will be eating." he said as he began walking again. "And after that we should be ready for a meeting I have to attend. Unless you end up thinking of something else."

"Fine with me… I'm getting really hungry anyway." she replied, following him. "What will we be eating?"

"Whatever my chef has prepared for us. It should already have been made since I told him to start on it before you woke up, so it won't be long before you can eat."

"That's good…" she simply replied.

After a few minutes, they eventually entered what appeared to be the dining room. There was a rectangular metallic table in the center of the room, surrounded by plenty of chairs. In front of one chair on the table was a plate with a chunk of some type of cooked meat, while placed in front of a nearby chair was a bowl of some type of soup.

Rachel quickly sat down in the chair that had the soup placed in front of it, not wanting to wait any longer to eat. As she examined the bowl's contents, picking up a spoon and swirling it around in the liquid, out of the corner of her eye she could see Erza sitting down in the other chair, beginning to eat the chunk of meat that was in front of him. She managed to scoop up a small piece of meat from the bowl and began chewing it. It was a little stringy, having a slight strange taste, however she was hungry enough to continue eating.

After she finished eating, she pushed the bowl aside a little and placed the spoon down inside it. Noticing that Erza seemed to be finished already, she smiled slightly and spoke. "So what was that anyway? It tasted kinda good."

"I don't think you would really want to know that." he said with a grin, standing up. "However, I'll tell you anyway just to creep you out. You just ate Grox meat."

Rachel was silent for a few seconds, slightly grossed out by the fact that she just ate a sentient creature. "…Please tell me you aren't serious…" she replied, slowly standing up.

"I'm completely serious. But why complain when you actually liked it?"

"…I just don't like the thought of eating a person… Especially of the same species that was sitting next to me…"

"Don't worry, I was eating Grox too, so I don't mind at all." he replied, continuing to grin.

"…You're disgusting…" she replied, picking up a glass of liquid that was sitting on the table in front of her, drinking it in attempt to get the taste out of her mouth. After placing it back on the table, she spoke once again. "…So what next? Are we ready for the meeting?"

"Yes, we are. The other Emperor should be here by now so we should go to my office to meet him." After saying this, he began walking away.

"Other Emperor?" she asked, following alongside him. "Who is he?"

"His name is Sizareh. He's the Emperor of the Northwestern Empire."

"Anything I should be watching out for before we meet him?"

"Just don't anger him and you should be fine. He's a little more aggressive than I am."

Rachel began to feel slightly uneasy, having a sick feeling in her stomach. "Would throwing up Grox chunks be something that would anger him? Because I'm still not feeling good about eating that…"

"Yes, I'm sure that would…"

She began attempting to focus off her stomach. "…Anyway, is there anything I should be doing while we're in the meeting?"

"I would prefer that you only speak if he wants you to."

"Alright, I think I can do that."

"Good…"

A few minutes later, the two entered what seemed to be an office. Two male Grox were already inside. One of them was armored, who seemed far more menacing than the other one, having Omega-like eyes and mechanical arms and legs. However, he also had more mechanical parts as well, like replacements for his ears and bottom jaw. He wore what seemed to be a metallic mask attached to the upper half of his face, covering his nose completely but having two slits in it so he could breathe. The other Grox seemed less threatening, having a black-colored mane and a bright green left eye, while the other eye was similar to Zadok's bionic eye. He wore a dark red coat and black slacks as well. He also had a few more bionic replacements as well, having both his right arm and leg replaced with cybernetic implants.

Rachel began walking near a corner, trying to stay out of the way so she didn't cause any problems. Once she did, she watched Erza as he grinned at the armored Grox. "So I see you brought Zurok with you. Why is that?"

She saw the other Grox stepping back slightly, seemingly nervous now. At this point, she assumed that the one who Erza was speaking to was Sizareh.

"I am having issues with this one that needs to be taken care of." Sizareh replied with a German-like accent.

"What has he been doing? I thought we dealt with him good enough already…"

"Well now instead of sending his military to fight for our enemies, he isn't helping us at all. He claims that his military is too weak and is unable to fight back. However I think that he just doesn't want his former allies to think he's an enemy again."

At this point, Rachel decided to interrupt. "…Maybe he has a good reason?"

Sizareh growled slightly, looking over at Rachel. "Oh really? Well please explain why."

She began to get slightly nervous, not really knowing how to reply. "…um… I'm not really sure… I was just throwing that out there…"

He soon began approaching her, stopping once he was in front of her. "Then I suggest you don't interrupt us again. Otherwise we are going to have major issues."

"Alright, alright…" she replied, stepping back a little.

"Good." he replied, soon turning back to Erza. "So how should we deal with him this time?"

"He deserves a worse punishment than before." Erza said with a devious grin. "I suggest we skin him alive so I can have a new cape."

Rachel looked over at Zurok, now seeing that he was obviously trembling. He appeared to be terrified.

"That might work, but it might also kill him." Sizareh replied. "We'll have to make sure he stays alive so he starts doing his job right. Otherwise he is useless to us."

Once again, Rachel decided to interrupt. "That's a bit cruel isn't it? It doesn't sound like he did anything that bad…"

Sizareh quickly turned back to Rachel and growled. "He refused to fight against our enemies. If he doesn't help us then he won't be considered an ally any longer, and we won't be able to trust him. He deserves to be either punished or killed, and we need an ally to help us. So a punishment is our only option."

"Skinning him still seems a bit extreme you sick bastard." she quickly replied, now annoyed.

"Hey, I wasn't even the one who suggested that!" he shouted. "That was Erza's plan not mine!"

Rachel glanced over at Erza a bit, noticing that he seemed to be quietly laughing to himself. "Well you still agreed to do it."

"I said that it might work, but I also said that we should also think of something else that probably won't kill him." Sizareh seemed obviously furious now, growling as he spoke. "Now you should probably stop arguing with me before I decide to skin you alive instead. I don't even know why you're here, but you are really beginning to annoy me."

"Well you're not doing much better at not getting on my nerves." she replied, glaring at him.

A silence filled the room for a few seconds before he spoke again. "Get out of here right now before I rip you apart!" he snarled.

"Fine, anywhere is better than being around you." she said as she stormed out of the room.

Behind her, she heard him speak once again. "Zurok, you get out of here as well while we discuss your punishment."

Glancing back a little, she could see Zurok quickly following her out the door. She sighed and leaned against a nearby wall, sitting down and looking up at him after the door slid shut. "Why don't you just fight those two? You're an Emperor aren't you?"

"…Yes, I am." he nervously replied, walking over beside her and slowly sitting down. "But they pretty much have control over me so it really wouldn't work…"

"Well couldn't you just join with the other Emperors?"

"They don't really trust me anymore since Erza and Sizareh have been forcing me to work for them instead…"

"If you explain your situation, I'm sure they will listen."

"I've tried that before and it only barely worked… I'm afraid it won't work again…"

"…Well maybe you could do something to convince them. I mean it's worth a shot. These guys just want to skin you and the others won't do anything as bad to you."

"…But if I do join the Alliance again, Erza would just send his military out to wipe out my Empire… The Southeastern part of his Empire is right next to mine…"

"I'm sure the Alliance would help defend you. Erza is already trying to kill you anyway so it doesn't really make any difference."

"They don't really care about me at all… All of the Emperors hate me because they think I'm cowardly and annoying…"

Rachel sighed a bit before speaking. "Well it's still better than this…"

"…It may not seem like it, but the other Emperors would basically just treat me the same…"

At this point, Rachel just decided to give up, knowing that she probably couldn't convince him to rejoin the Alliance. "Fine, I was just trying to help."

"It's okay… You just don't understand what I've been through…"

She didn't say anything in response, simply beginning to wait for the meeting to end.


	15. Chapter 15

After a while of waiting for the meeting to end, Rachel began to close her eyes for a bit. She was tired of waiting for them barely able to keep her eyes open at this point anyway. A few minutes later, she heard the faint noise of the door sliding open. Not really paying attention to what that exactly was, she simply continued to rest. However, when she began to hear footsteps, she lazily opened her eyes and looked over to where she heard the sounds, now seeing Erza looking down at her.

"If you haven't noticed already, we're finished with the meeting." he said with a slight grin. "But if you would still like to sleep, we can go back in my office and find something else to discuss."

Rachel sighed and stood up. "So what's the decision? I hope you really aren't planning on skinning him."

Erza's grin seemed to widen a bit. "No, we thought of a better plan. He definitely won't be disobeying us after this."

"…I don't like the sound of that." she replied, looking over at Zurok. He was still sitting down, staring at the floor and visibly trembling. She felt sorry for him, thinking of how frightened he must feel at the moment.

"We decided to have him tortured for ten days instead. That should give him enough time to think about finally fighting for us."

Rachel glared at Erza after hearing what he said. "That's way too extreme."

"It was either that or skinning him. And we couldn't risk him getting killed so the torture was our best option." He soon turned his gaze to Zurok. "Alright, it's time to go."

Zurok was still trembling, slowly standing up and walking towards Erza and Sizareh.

Rachel watched Zurok, attempting to smile a bit once he looked at her. "I hope you'll be alright after this…"

He said nothing in response, seemingly too nervous to speak.

The silence was soon interrupted by a beeping noise coming from Erza's direction. He soon pressed a button on his wrist, which allowed what seemed to be a communicator to play a transmission.

/Emperor, I have acquired some news for you that I've gotten from the Alliance./

"What is it?" Erza asked. "Whatever it is, it better be important. I was just about to send Zurok to be tortured."

/Yes sir, it is very important. Emperor Zadok has been captured./

Erza grinned a bit. "That's good… One less enemy to worry about. Anyway, who captured him?"

/I'm not really sure. I've never seen their kind before. The entire Alliance has declared war on them though so they must have done more than just capturing their leader./

"Well maybe we can use them as a distraction. This will probably be a good chance to attack."

/Yes sir, I'll await your orders./

While Rachel was listening to what was happening, she walked over to Zurok a bit, wondering if he was okay. He was still trembling, which seemed to answer her thought.

"Anyway, did anything else happen that I should know about?" Erza asked.

/Yes. All three of the Alliance Emperors have left to attack the enemies in attempt to rescue their leader./

"That's even better…" I'm not sure why they would risk their lives for one Emperor, but if they all die then it will allow us to easily take control over their Empires."

/Is there anything you want me to do to make sure of that?/

Erza paused for a few seconds, seeming to be thinking. "Attempt to cause as much damage to their Empires as you can without being detected."

/Yes sir./

He pressed another button on his wrist, which Rachel guessed ended the transmission. She soon glared at him. "So who is the spy?"

"None of your business." he replied, looking over at her. "But I will tell you that he definitely will weaken the Alliance good enough to where we can easily take over while they are distracted by those aliens."

"Well what now?" she asked in an annoyed tone.

"Now, I guess we'll take Zurok to be tortured." he said, grinning at Zurok.

"…Do you really have to do that?"

"I already explained why this is necessary." He soon turned and began walking down the hallway. "Zurok, follow me."

Zurok began trembling once again, soon yelping out of fear after Sizareh shoved him forward by pushing his back. He quickly began to follow Erza, Sizareh following behind as well.

Soon, Rachel thought of an idea, walking quickly to catch up with Erza. "…Maybe he could help."

Erza sighed, glancing over at her as he continued walking. "He already refused to help so he must be punished. There isn't anything you can do to change my mind."

"…Maybe he could help with capturing Zadok I mean."

He laughed after Rachel said this. "He's too cowardly to even think about that."

"But what if he does?"

"He won't." he said with a growl.

"Well why don't you just ask him? He might do it."

"Fine." He soon stopped walking, as well as everyone else who was following. He then turned his gaze to Zurok, grinning. "Will you go on an enemy ship and capture Zadok for us?"

Zurok said nothing in response, seemingly too nervous to reply.

Erza looked back at Rachel. "See?"

Rachel sighed, looking at Zurok. "Come on Zurok. I'll go with you. It's better than being tortured for ten days isn't it?" She managed to smile a bit, attempting to calm him down a little.

He remained silent, uneasily looking back at Rachel.

"This is your best chance, please trust me on this one."

There were a few seconds of silence, however he soon replied. "…Okay."

She soon looked back at Erza. "See? Now you don't have to torture him, right?"

"…Fine, I won't." he replied, growling slightly. "But if he refuses to help us again then he'll deserve it."

"Alright, now do you have any idea where he might be located at the moment? I understand he's on a ship, but where is it?"

"How am I supposed to know when the spy didn't tell me?" he said in an annoyed tone.

"Is there a way to find out? Or are you expecting us to fly a ship around randomly?"

He soon grinned. "I would prefer that, yes." Unless you can think of a better way."

"Not really…"

"Then you and Zurok find a ship and get out of my sight. And if you come back here make sure you have Zadok with you. Otherwise there will be serious consequences."

"Yes sir…" she replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes a bit and looking at Zurok. "Let's go find the hanger." She began to walk, expecting Zurok to follow.

As Zurok followed alongside him, she noticed that he still seemed to be trembling. "What's wrong?"

"I'm just nervous…"

"Don't be." she replied, smiling. "Everything will be fine in the end, trust me."

"Usually everything ends bad for me…"

Rachel sighed a little. "Well this time it won't. Just try to think positive."

"Okay…"

After a few minutes, they finally managed to reach the hanger. Eight soldiers were already inside, seeming to watch Rachel and Zurok closely after they entered. There were only five ships in there at the moment, however about two of them seemed good enough for the mission. Rachel walked over to a small-sized ship and began examining it, expecting Zurok to follow.

"Do you think you can fly this one?" she asked, looking back at Zurok.

"Yes, I can…" he replied, entering the ship.

Rachel followed close behind, closing the door behind her after she was on the ship. "I'm ready to leave when you are."

"Alright…" he replied, still in a slightly nervous tone.

As Zurok sat down in the pilot's seat, Rachel followed behind, sitting beside him in the co-pilot's seat. "Don't worry. I have a plan."

"Okay, what is it?" he asked, pressing a few buttons on the control panel. Rachel could now hear the roaring noise of the ship's engines starting up.

"I'll tell you once we find the alien ship."

"…How are we going to find that ship anyway?" he asked again, looking at her.

"That I'm not really sure about. Maybe we could look around the edge of the Alliance's territory."

"Alright, but that's a lot of places to look… This will take a while."

Rachel leaned back in her seat a bit, getting comfortable. She looked out the window in front of her, seeing the ship exit the hanger and fly off into space. "Do you have a better idea?" she asked, turning her gaze back to Zurok.

"Not really…" he sighed.

"…Can you please lighten up a bit? You don't always have to be such a downer…"

"It's kinda hard to do that… For me it is anyway."

"Well, this is better than getting tortured right? That's at least one good thing to smile about."

"I guess…" he replied, managing to smile a bit.

Rachel smiled back after noticing. "That's better. Just try to think positively until we finish this, alright?"

"I'll try…"

"Anyway, does this ship have something that can detect lifeforms? If there is, you can use it to look for a Grox that's surrounded by a different species."

"Yes, I think that could work." he replied, pressing a few more buttons on the control panel.

Rachel closed her eyes, still feeling drowsy from earlier. "I'm gonna take a nap while you're looking. Wake me up when you find something." It wasn't long before she fell asleep.


	16. Chapter 16

A few hours later, Rachel opened her eyes, finally fully rested. She sat up a little in her chair and looked over at Zurok, who seemed to be completely focused on a monitor on the control panel. "So did you find anything yet?"

"Yes… But we have a problem…" he nervously replied, glancing at Rachel.

"What is it?"

"The Grox that I found is inside a warship in the middle of a fleet according to the radar…" He pressed a button on the control panel and looked back at her. "This might not even be Zadok that we found…"

"Well we should still go check it out anyway. If it's really Zadok, it wouldn't be good if he stayed there."

"But I don't know if we can board the ship undetected… This ship has a cloaking device, but I'm still not sure about how advanced these aliens are."

"We still have to try. Let's just get this over with and do it now."

Without saying anything in response, Zurok gazed back over at the control panel, pressing another button. "It should be cloaked now." He soon began piloting the ship towards the location that the radar had detected the fleet.

In seconds, Rachel could see a large fleet of hundreds of threatening bronze-colored ships. Towards the center of this fleet was an enormous warship, appearing to be large enough to be able to hold every single ship surrounding it inside its hanger.

"I should probably tell you what my plan is now…" she said, looking back at Zurok.

"…Yes, that would be helpful." he replied, trembling slightly as he kept his focus on the fleet ahead. "What is it?"

"Once we get Zadok, we'll bring him back to the Alliance instead of Erza."

"…I'm not sure if that's a good idea…"

"Why not? I'll give you full credit for saving him. And after doing such a good thing for the Alliance, I'm sure they would be happy to have you back as an ally."

"I guess that could work…" he said after pausing for a few seconds.

Rachel smiled. "Now, let's go save him and get back home."

The ship soon began navigating through the massive fleet, carefully making its way towards the warship. Rachel gazed out the window as they passed by the enemies. After a few minutes passed, she was soon looking at the huge empty hanger of the warship. Once their ship landed inside, she stood back up and walked over to the door, opening it and peeking her head outside. Behind her, she could hear Zurok getting up and walking over to her. She quickly moved her head back inside, looking around the ship. "From the look of the ships I'm guessing they're hostile. We need to find some sort of weapons."

"There should be some weapons somewhere in the cargo hold." Zurok replied, beginning to walk to the back of the ship, opening a door and walking inside a room. About a minute later, he came back to Rachel, now holding two pistol-like blasters. He soon handed one of them to her.

"Thank you." she said, taking the blaster. "Hopefully we won't be using these weapons at all." She exited the ship, expecting Zurok to follow behind, and began sneaking towards the hanger's exit, hoping to make it deeper inside the ship without being detected.

After a few minutes, the two finally entered into the hallways of the warship. The hallways were poorly-lit by strange orbs on the sides of the metallic, bronze-colored walls. Soon enough, Rachel froze once she heard voices in the distance. She looked back at Zurok, who had stopped walking as well, now visibly trembling. "We should try to get closer to them so that maybe we can hear what they're saying." she whispered.

Without waiting for a response, Rachel began to creep closer to where she heard the voices. Once she was close enough, she could clearly hear the conversation that was taking place.

"I still don't get why Lord Scar doesn't just eat the little fuzz." one of the aliens growled. "He doesn't look like much of a meal, but he seems like a nice treat."

The second alien growled in response. "Because you idiot, that Grox is the one who will negotiate with us and give us the fuel we need. Besides, he is in the vault right now."

The other alien paused for a few seconds. "…You mean with Nevion-Trax?"

"Yeah. Even if they get the red fuzz back, he probably will be almost dead anyway when Nevion-Trax is through with him."

Rachel could now hear the sounds of the aliens walking away from them. She soon looked over at Zurok, who was now standing closely beside her. "Well, now we know where the Grox is… We need to figure out the location of the vault."

"Then maybe we should start looking." Zurok whispered back.

"All I know is that I don't-" Her sentence was abruptly interrupted by a voice she heard directly behind her.

"I could help with that." the voice simply said.

Both Rachel and Zurok quickly turned around. What they now saw in front of them was an armored bipedal bird-like creature, who was armed with a large gun, having blue-colored hardened fur that had white stripes going through it. He had double-jointed legs, which ended in clawed, three toed feet, and had a large spike protruding out of both back knee. He also had three long, slender, clawed fingers on each arm, as well as another spike on both of his elbows. On his shoulders seemed to be a large, white puff of either fur or feathers. His chest was protected by what seemed to be a second rib cage, sticking out of his flesh. He also noticeably had menacing red, glowing eyes, which looked over his sharp beak. A sharp, jagged pincher was on each side of his beak as well.

The alien grinned. "I'll bring you straight to the vault, but you'll never get out alive."

Rachel glanced over at Zurok for a few seconds, only to see that he was trembling in fear, backing away slightly from the alien. Soon enough, she quickly aimed her blaster at the alien as a threat.

The alien instantly pointed his own gun at her and growled. "Don't even think about it girl. I will exterminate you if you become too much trouble."

Rachel sighed and lowered her blaster, deciding that she should just give up before they both get killed. "…Fine. Then take us to the vault."

The alien looked in Zurok's direction and grinned. "So many red fuzz balls just being dumped into the vault." He looked back at Rachel. "Now, drop your weapons."

Both Rachel and Zurok immediately placed their blasters on the floor in response to the alien's demand.

The alien pointed his gun at one of the doors, then back to them. "That way, now." he growled.

Rachel glared at the alien for a few seconds, soon beginning to walk towards the door that he pointed to, Zurok following close beside her. Once she began walking, she felt something jab her in the back, guessing it was the alien's gun.

"Didn't expect to see a human after all the fuzz balls." the alien spoke, jabbing her back again.

She glanced back at him for a few seconds, glaring at him before she continued walking again.

"Too good to respond?" the alien asked.

"I'd just rather not reply." she said, stopping in front of the door that he pointed to and turning back around to look at him, glaring.

He soon opened the door and shoved both Rachel and Zurok inside. "Try to enjoy yourselves before Nevion-Trax finds you. Because after that you're going to wish you were dead."

Rachel and Zurok began walking farther in the room, looking around a bit. The vault reeked of the rotten flesh of past victims who were there before. Lining the ceiling were cages chained to it, hanging in the air. Strange torture devices were spread everywhere throughout the room as well, each designed for different species of aliens. The lighting in this room was dimmer than the hallways, making more distant areas impossible for Rachel to see. She soon heard the door close behind her, which let her know that she should start looking for the Grox now. She immediately began peering up into the cages, eventually noticing a fairly beat-up Grox lying down in one.

"I see a Grox up there." she said as she quickly turned her gaze to Zurok.

"Maybe it's Zadok…" he replied, noticeably trembling yet again.

Rachel looked back at the Grox again, continuing to examine it more. The Grox looked a lot different from Zadok, wearing heavy armor. He also had much thicker fur than Zadok did as well. "…I don't think it's him, but we should help him out anyway. Can you climb on my shoulders and try to get the cage open? I'm not gonna be able to reach it."

She looked at Zurok, watching him as he climbed up her, hoping that she would be able to carry his weight. His cybernetics gave him extra weight, making it slightly difficult for her to hold him up. He began seemingly examining the Grox for a bit. "Please hurry up and get the cage open… I don't know how long I'm gonna be able to do this." Only seconds later, she could feel him beginning to tremble yet again.

"I know this Grox…" he said in a nervous tone. "We can't free him…"

"Why not?"

"This is Emperor Rhoka… He's not too friendly…"

Rachel sighed, beginning to get tired of holding him up. "Who's side is he on?"

"He's with the Alliance but no one really trusts him. I'm not going to let him out." He soon jumped down off Rachel only seconds later.

"You know we should free him anyway." she said, glaring at Zurok a little. "If he really is an Alliance Emperor we need to make sure he gets out of here alive."

"I still don't think-" Zurok was immediately interrupted by disturbing snickering that they heard behind them.

Rachel and Zurok quickly turned around, seeing a twisted figure creeping towards them out of the shadows of the vault. The first thing she noticed was that its left eye was cybernetic, glowing bright red in the darkness. After more of the creature was visible, she noticed that it was another one of the threatening, bird-like aliens. The alien was a patchwork of metal and flesh. Tubes ran across its body, filled with a sickly green liquid that was being pumped through him by a device on his back. His right arm was also fully mechanical, ending with a sharp, clawed hand. Rachel could barely handle looking at the deformed alien, threatened by the devious, sharp-toothed grin on its face.

The alien cackled a bit more, obviously noticing the fear of Rachel and Zurok. "Hehehe, looks like Trax has new play things." he said, smirking at the two.

Rachel was almost too nervous to reply, backing away slowly from him. "Um… could I ask a question…? Who and what are you?"

"The name is Trax, and Trax is a Nevion." he replied, his grin widening creepily. "This place is Trax's lab, where you'll soon become a part of."

"…What do you mean by that?" she asked in an uneasy tone.

"Hehehe… Your blood will soon stain the floor."

Rachel said nothing in response to this, backing away a little more. She glanced over at Zurok, noticing him trembling in fear.

Trax immediately began slowly walking towards them. "Now, how will Trax start your torture?"

Rachel attempted to stay still now, thinking that she could maybe give him a reason to let them go. "…Look, all we came here for is Zadok, and since we don't see him, we can leave now if that's what you want…"

"And why would Trax want that?" he replied, stopping in front of her and looking down at her. "Trax always welcomes new victims to his vault."

Not knowing what else to do, Rachel quickly managed to punch him in the head out of fear. She knew that doing it was a bad idea, frightened even more after thinking about how he could respond.

Trax only continued to grin at her, laughing a bit. "Was that it? Trax can do much better." After saying this, he instantly sliced his razor sharp talons at Rachel's face.

Rachel quickly managed to dodge the attack and backed away from him, however she couldn't avoid him when he lunged at her, grasping onto her arms. She immediately began struggling. "Let me go!"

Trax only tightened his grip, beginning to drag her over to the operating table. "Trax hasn't gotten to tear apart a human in a very long time."

Rachel didn't know what to do now, simply continuing to struggle. However, his grip on her was too tight for her to escape from him.

"Surprised your friend isn't helping you." he grinned, stopping by the table.

Rachel gazed over at Zurok, seeing him trembling a distance away. She knew that he wouldn't do anything to prevent her from being tortured.

Trax looked at Zurok as well, grinning a bit. "Guess you want her dead." He quickly looked back at Rachel, forcing her onto the table and beginning to strap her down.

Finally, Zurok managed to speak. "…Why do you have to do this to her?"

"Because, it's fun." Trax simply replied, looking back at Rachel with a malicious grin.

"Just… Torture me instead and let her go!"

Trax soon picked up a sharp knife from a table nearby. "No, you'll just stand there and Trax will get you later."

Rachel watched Zurok as he backed away a little more. She glared at him a bit, wishing that he would do something to help her. However, she was instantly stunned once she saw a familiar alien storming into the vault. It was Omega.

"Release them now." he growled, glaring intensely at Trax.

Rachel couldn't handle remaining silent after seeing him. "Omega? How the hell did you escape?"

Seemingly ignoring her, he continued speaking to Trax. "I am an ally of your leader, and you will obey my demand. Now let them go!"

"How about you just take a nap?" Trax sneered, a needle gun forming on his mechanical arm. He quickly aimed it at Omega, firing a few of the syringes at him.

The syringes only bounced off Omega's armor. "Did you really think that needles could penetrate my armor?" he growled, reaching for his energy swords and activating them. "I will say this one last time before I destroy you. Let them go!"

Rachel glanced over at Trax, noticing him putting the knife down and picking up a slender blade, pressing a button on it that caused it to become electrified. "Then attack, droid!" he snarled, beginning to approach Omega.

She watched them as they began to fight, slicing their blades at each other and blocking the attacks. She was soon distracted after she noticed Zurok running next to her, starting to unstrap her from the table. "Why couldn't you have done this earlier?" she whispered, glaring at Zurok slightly.

"He wasn't distracted until now…" he nervously replied, now finished unstrapping her. "I'm sorry, he just frightened me a lot…"

Rachel quickly sat up and slid off the table, sprinting towards the door. She glanced behind her, seeing Zurok following behind her. However, she soon remembered something after passing by the cage that Rhoka was in. She immediately stopped, turning back to the cage.

Zurok stopped as well, obviously frightened by the situation. "What are you doing?" he whispered. "We need to get out of here!"

"I'm still not sure if we should leave the Emperor behind…" she whispered back.

"Look if we don't leave now then we'll both end up like him!"

Rachel was about to reply, however she was abruptly interrupted by the sound of the doors slamming open. She quickly looked over to the exit, seeing two Nevions now standing there. One of them was much taller and more muscular than the others she had seen before, also having blue eyes as well, instead of red. He also wore a long, blue cape that flowed down his back. Beside him appeared to be a female, having a much more feminine appearance.

"What is going on in here?" the male asked in an annoyed tone, gazing over at Omega and Trax. The two immediately stopped fighting, looking at the two Nevions who had entered the room.

Omega decided to speak first. "Your torturer won't let me take the two prisoners that I want!" he snarled.

The Nevion sighed in response. "He has a mind of his own sometimes." He then looked at Trax, growling a little. "Go work on something else, Nevion-Trax. We will 'discuss' this later."

In only seconds, Trax crept away from the group, disappearing back into the shadows of the vault without saying anything in response.

Rachel watched as the Nevion approached Omega. "Now, would you do me a favor and take those three and leave?"

"Three?" Omega asked, looking back. He just seemed to have realized that Zurok was there as well. He growled a little, soon turning his gaze back to the Nevion. "I don't care about the Grox out of the cage. He can just be killed since he's useless to me. However, I have second thoughts for the other two now."

Rachel looked over at Zurok, seeing him completely focused on the Nevion. He seemed to be trembling more than he had before, obviously terrified by the situation. In seconds, she managed to see the Nevion activating a wrist gun and aiming it at Zurok. Before she could even react, a laser beam shot out of the gun, striking him dead. She was shocked at this point, not thinking that the Nevion would decide to kill him so quickly.

After it was over, the Nevion grasped Omega by the throat. "And what are these second thoughts that you have?"

"I think I've decided to leave the Emperor here since I don't exactly need him to be assimilated at this time. As for the girl, I want her to stay with you. I know that you would be able to teach her obedience well, and most likely she won't obey me if I brought her with me at this time."

The Nevion seemed to tighten his grip. "And what is the reason that I'm just going to let you dump that work on me?"

"You'll see the reason for this eventually." Omega simply replied, seeming unthreatened by the Nevion's actions.

"Well I don't want that girl hanging around." he said sharply.

"I don't care." Omega growled. "She might even be useful to you eventually you know."

"You're not going to give me a good reason, are you?"

"I already told you that you'll find out later."

The Nevion quickly shoved Omega to the floor, releasing his grip on his throat. "Just get out of my sight."

"Fine, I will soon." Omega growled as he stood back up. "However, I do want to stay here for a while and see how you Nevions work."

"I thought I just told you to leave!" the Nevion snapped, baring his sharp teeth at Omega.

"Well since we are now allies I thought that it would be fine. Besides, I can give you something in return."

"That depends on what it is exactly." he growled. "It better not be another useless 'apprentice' or something like that."

"No, nothing like that." Omega sighed. "In return I'm planning on giving you the coordinates to my main base. No one else knows where it is but me and the ones who work for me."

"…Fine. Give me the coordinates and you can stay. As long as knowing the location of your base will be beneficial to me."

"Trust me, it will. Anyway, right now I do have to go back to my base for a bit. However, I'll be back here soon." He soon began walking away, exiting the vault.

Rachel soon noticed that both of the Nevions seemed completely focused on her. "Come over here girl." the male growled, glaring at her. "I'm not in the mood to mess around anymore."

As she began walking towards him, she glanced over at Zurok's dead body, feeling sorry for him. "You didn't have to kill him you know. He was completely harmless…" she said once she stopped beside the Nevion.

"He was also useless to me." he replied, starting to walk out of the door. "Now follow me. I have business elsewhere." He soon looked over at the other Nevion. "Dev, walk behind her. If she tries something, harm her."

Rachel said nothing in response, beginning to follow the Nevion. As she walked, she glanced behind her for a few seconds, seeing Dev following behind.

The Nevion soon continued speaking. "We will have to find a crate or something for you to sleep in. As for food you will get what's left over when everyone else is done. Bug me too much and you will be beat."

"You could treat me a bit better than that you know." Rachel replied, glaring at him.

"I could, but it would be a waste of my supplies."

"…If I end up dying, I don't think Omega will let you live either. He tired really hard to force me to become his apprentice the last time we met, and I know he won't be happy if he finds out that I'm dead."

The Nevion grinned in response. "Well he just made a major mistake. I really don't care about what he wants, if you haven't figured that out already. But I'll keep my word and not kill you myself."

Rachel decided to say nothing in response, continuing to glare at him.

Eventually, the three entered what seemed to be the ship's bridge. In the wall in front of them was an enormous window, allowing them to view the space outside. Below the window was a large control panel. Many seats were placed in front of different areas in front of it. As Rachel continued to follow, she noticed that the Nevions who were already there seemed to be watching her closely.

Soon enough, the Nevion spoke again and looked at Rachel once they reached the front of the bridge. "If you learn to behave quickly, you can go off to be with Omega and not end up dying here."

Rachel glared at him once again. "Well maybe I don't want to be with Omega either."

The Nevion grinned, looking over at Dev. "Oh Dev, would you please?" he simply said.

Without warning, Dev lunged at Rachel, grasping her left hand and snapping one of her fingers. Rachel yelled out in pain, not expecting that this would have happened.

"Why the hell did you just do that?" she shouted, glaring at Dev. She was soon distracted after the other Nevion turned her around and grasped her by the throat, lifting her off the floor.

"Back talking isn't being very obedient. It was starting to bug me so I kept my promise to you to inflict pain." He then dropped Rachel, sitting down in one of the nearby chairs. "Now try not to get in the way."

Rachel stood back up, still in pain from what just happened. She walked over to a chair and sat down, attempting to focus off of it.


	17. Notice

Sorry to say this, but I will not be continuing this story (probably should have said that a lot earlier o.o )

Instead of writing for this, I have replaced it with writing a novel that is similar to this. It is based on my fanfic and RP series, and pretty much is the same thing, except everything that makes it a fanfic is replaced or removed and every single character was renamed (some of them were also removed, but I have added a few new characters as well). There is also a completely different storyline and I have edited a lot, but it does follow a similar main plot (so continuing would give major spoilers).

I'm putting a lot more thought into planning for the novel, so it is taking up a large amount of my time as well. It is much more complex and interesting than the fanfic, so this needs a lot more focus on planning. Even if I decided to continue the fanfic, it would be extremely difficult to write for it.

However, even though I am discontinuing the fanfic, I will say that whoever liked this will definitely like the novel a lot more. Even though I changed a lot, it is the best story I have started writing so far. The characters are more realistic and interesting, the plots are more exciting and detailed, and pretty much everything is a hundred times better than the fanfic. I am feeling very confident in the future of this novel, and I can say that this will absolutely get published one day.

If you have any questions or comments, send me a PM or e-mail (my e-mail is ) and I will reply to it as soon as possible (no spam or junk mail please o.o ).

By the way, I will be adding novel-related artwork on my DeviantArt page sometime soon (but at the moment I'm kinda distracted with drawing stuff from movies and video games o.o). More than likely anything novel-related that I add will include some type of background information on the series, so it could also make the novel even more interesting than it already is ^ ^


End file.
